1.
China
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China, officially the Peoples Republic of China, is a unitary sovereign state in East Asia and the worlds most populous country, with a population of over 1.381 billion. The state is governed by the Communist Party of China and its capital is Beijing, the countrys major urban areas include Shanghai, Guangzhou, Beijing, Chongqing, Shenzhen, Tianjin and Hong Kong. China is a power and a major regional power within Asia. Chinas landscape is vast and diverse, ranging from forest steppes, the Himalaya, Karakoram, Pamir and Tian Shan mountain ranges separate China from much of South and Central Asia. The Yangtze and Yellow Rivers, the third and sixth longest in the world, respectively, Chinas coastline along the Pacific Ocean is 14,500 kilometers long and is bounded by the Bohai, Yellow, East China and South China seas. China emerged as one of the worlds earliest civilizations in the basin of the Yellow River in the North China Plain. For millennia, Chinas political system was based on hereditary monarchies known as dynasties, in 1912, the Republic of China replaced the last dynasty and ruled the Chinese mainland until 1949, when it was defeated by the communist Peoples Liberation Army in the Chinese Civil War. The Communist Party established the Peoples Republic of China in Beijing on 1 October 1949, both the ROC and PRC continue to claim to be the legitimate government of all China, though the latter has more recognition in the world and controls more territory. China had the largest economy in the world for much of the last two years, during which it has seen cycles of prosperity and decline. Since the introduction of reforms in 1978, China has become one of the worlds fastest-growing major economies. As of 2016, it is the worlds second-largest economy by nominal GDP, China is also the worlds largest exporter and second-largest importer of goods. China is a nuclear weapons state and has the worlds largest standing army. The PRC is a member of the United Nations, as it replaced the ROC as a permanent member of the U. N. Security Council in 1971. China is also a member of numerous formal and informal multilateral organizations, including the WTO, APEC, BRICS, the Shanghai Cooperation Organization, the BCIM, the English name China is first attested in Richard Edens 1555 translation of the 1516 journal of the Portuguese explorer Duarte Barbosa. The demonym, that is, the name for the people, Portuguese China is thought to derive from Persian Chīn, and perhaps ultimately from Sanskrit Cīna. Cīna was first used in early Hindu scripture, including the Mahābhārata, there are, however, other suggestions for the derivation of China. The official name of the state is the Peoples Republic of China. The shorter form is China Zhōngguó, from zhōng and guó and it was then applied to the area around Luoyi during the Eastern Zhou and then to Chinas Central Plain before being used as an occasional synonym for the state under the Qing
2.
Tiananmen Square
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Tiananmen Square is a city square in the centre of Beijing, China, named after the Tiananmen located to its north, separating it from the Forbidden City. The square contains the Monument to the Peoples Heroes, the Great Hall of the People, the National Museum of China, and the Mausoleum of Mao Zedong. Mao Zedong proclaimed the founding of the Peoples Republic of China in the square on October 1,1949, Tiananmen Square is within the top ten largest city squares in the world. It has great significance as it was the site of several important events in Chinese history. Outside China, the square is best known for the Tiananmen Square Massacre, the Tiananmen, a gate in the wall of the Imperial City, was built in 1415 during the Ming dynasty. In the 17th century, fighting between Li Zichengs rebel forces and the forces of the Manchu-led Qing dynasty caused heavy damage to, or even destroyed, Tiananmen Square was designed and built in 1651, and has since been enlarged by four times its original size in the 1950s. Near the centre of the square stood the Great Ming Gate, the gate to the Imperial City, renamed Great Qing Gate during the Qing dynasty. This gate had a status as the Gate of the Nation. It normally remained closed, except when the Emperor passed through, commoner traffic was diverted to side gates at the western and eastern ends of the square, respectively. Because of this diversion in traffic, a marketplace, called Chess Grid Streets, was developed in the big. In 1860, during the Second Opium War, when British and French troops invaded Beijing, they pitched camp near the gate and briefly considered burning down the gate and they decided ultimately to spare the Forbidden City and instead burn down the Old Summer Palace. When the forces of the Eight-Nation Alliance besieged Beijing during the Boxer Rebellion in 1900, they damaged the office complexes. After the Boxer Rebellion ended, the became a space for the foreign powers to assemble their military forces. In 1954, the Gate of China was demolished, allowing for the enlargement of the square, in November 1958, a major expansion of Tiananmen Square started, which was completed after only 11 months, in August 1959. This followed the vision of Mao Zedong to make the square the largest and most spectacular in the world, in that process, a large number of residential buildings and other structures have been demolished. On its southern edge, the Monument to the Peoples Heroes has been erected, the year after Maos death in 1976, a mausoleum was built near the site of the former Gate of China, on the main north-south axis of the square. In connection with this project, the square was further increased in size to become fully rectangular, the urban context of the square was altered in the 1990s with the construction of National Grand Theatre in its vicinity and the expansion of the National Museum. Used as a meeting place since its creation, its flatness is contrasted by the 38-metre high Monument to the Peoples Heroes
3.
Beijing
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Beijing is the capital of the Peoples Republic of China and the worlds third most populous city proper. It is also one of the worlds most populous capital cities, the city, located in northern China, is governed as a direct-controlled municipality under the national government with 16 urban, suburban, and rural districts. Beijing is the second largest Chinese city by population after Shanghai and is the nations political, cultural. It is home to the headquarters of most of Chinas largest state-owned companies, and is a hub for the national highway, expressway, railway. The citys history dates back three millennia, as the last of the Four Great Ancient Capitals of China, Beijing has been the political centre of the country for much of the past eight centuries. Beijing was the largest city in the world by population for much of the second millennium A. D, the city is renowned for its opulent palaces, temples, parks, gardens, tombs, walls and gates. Its art treasures and universities have made it centre of culture, encyclopædia Britannica notes that few cities in the world have served for so long as the political headquarters and cultural centre of an area as immense as China. Siheyuans, the traditional housing style, and hutongs, the narrow alleys between siheyuans, are major tourist attractions and are common in urban Beijing. The city hosted the 2008 Summer Olympics and was chosen to host the 2022 Winter Olympics, many of Beijings 91 universities consistently rank among the best in China, of which Peking University and Tsinghua University are ranked in the top 60 universities in the world. Beijings Zhongguancun area is known as Chinas Silicon Valley and Chinas center of innovation. According to the 2016 InterNations Expat Insider Survey, Beijing ranked first in Asia in the subcategory Personal Finance Index, expats live primarily in urban districts such as Dongcheng and Chaoyang in the east, or in suburban districts such as Shunyi. Over the past 3,000 years, the city of Beijing has had other names. The name Beijing, which means Northern Capital, was applied to the city in 1403 during the Ming Dynasty to distinguish the city from Nanjing, the English spelling is based on the pinyin romanisation of the two characters as they are pronounced in Standard Mandarin. Those dialects preserve the Middle Chinese pronunciation of 京 as kjaeng, the single Chinese character abbreviation for Beijing is 京, which appears on automobile license plates in the city. The official Latin alphabet abbreviation for Beijing is BJ, the earliest traces of human habitation in the Beijing municipality were found in the caves of Dragon Bone Hill near the village of Zhoukoudian in Fangshan District, where Peking Man lived. Homo erectus fossils from the date to 230,000 to 250,000 years ago. Paleolithic Homo sapiens also lived more recently, about 27,000 years ago. Archaeologists have found neolithic settlements throughout the municipality, including in Wangfujing, the first walled city in Beijing was Ji, a city from the 11th to 7th century BC
4.
Lin Biao
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Lin Biao was a Marshal of the Peoples Republic of China who was pivotal in the Communist victory in the Chinese Civil War, especially in Northeast China. Lin was the general who commanded the decisive Liaoshen and Pingjin Campaigns, in which he co-led the Manchurian Field Army to victory and he crossed the Yangtze River in 1949, decisively defeated the Kuomintang and took control of the coastal provinces in Southeast China. He ranked third among the Ten Marshals, Zhu De and Peng Dehuai were considered senior to Lin, and Lin ranked directly ahead of He Long and Liu Bocheng. Lin abstained from taking a role in politics after the civil war ceased in 1949. He led a section of the civil bureaucracy as one of the co-serving Deputy Vice Premiers of the Peoples Republic of China from 1954 onwards. Lin became more active in politics when named one of the co-serving Vice Chairmen of the Communist Party of China in 1958 and he held the three responsibilities of Vice Premier, Vice Chairman and Minister of National Defense from 1959 onwards. Lin died on September 13,1971 when a Hawker Siddeley Trident he was crashed in Öndörkhaan of Mongolia. The exact events of this Lin Biao incident have been a source of speculation ever since, the Chinese governments official explanation is that Lin and his family attempted to flee following a botched coup against Mao. Others have argued that they fled out of fear they would be purged, following Lins death, he was officially condemned as a traitor by the Communist Party. Since the late 1970s Lin and Maos wife Jiang Qing have been labeled the two major forces of the Cultural Revolution, receiving official blame from the Chinese government. Lin Biao was the son of a merchant family in Huanggang. His name at birth was Lin Yurong, Lins father opened a small handicrafts factory in the mid-late 1910s, but was forced to close the factory due to heavy taxes imposed by local militarists. After closing the factory, Lins father worked as a purser aboard a river steamship, Lin entered primary school in 1917, but moved to Shanghai in 1919 to continue his education. As a child, Lin was much interested in participating in student movements than in pursuing his formal education. Lin joined an organization of the Communist Youth League before he graduated high school in 1925. Later in 1925 he participated in the May Thirtieth Movement and enrolled in the newly established Whampoa Military Academy in Guangzhou, as a young cadet, Lin admired the personality of Chiang Kai-shek, who was then the Principal of the Academy. At Whampoa, Lin also studied under Premier Zhou Enlai, who was eight years older than Lin, Lin had no contact with Zhou after their time in Whampoa, until they met again in Yanan in the late 1930s. Lins relationship with Zhou was never close, but they rarely opposed each other directly
5.
Chang'an Avenue
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Changan Avenue, literally Eternal Peace Street, is a major thoroughfare in Beijing, China. It is often referred to as the Shili Changjie, meaning the Long Street of Ten Li, Changan is the old name for Xian which was the capital of China during the Tang Dynasty and other periods. Strictly speaking, Changan Avenue only encompasses West Changan Avenue and East Changan Avenue, however, it is also used to refer to the stretch from Fuxingmen on the Western 2nd Ring Road to Jianguomen on the Eastern 2nd Ring Road. In very broad terms, it refers to the stretch of road as the route from Shijingshan District through to Tongzhou District and this article, and related articles, consider it to be the road from Fuxing Road through to the beginning of the Jingtong Expressway. Others have defined it as the road from Shijingshan Road through to Dawangqiao on Jianguo Road, in 2009 the road was widened to 10 lanes, as part of the 60th anniversary of the founding of the Peoples Republic of China. Changan Avenue is the road directly before Tiananmen gate and to the north of Tiananmen Square, located along Changan Avenue and near Tiananmen Square are the Great Hall of the People, Zhongnanhai, and central government buildings. Both the Beijing railway station and Beijing west railway station are located near Changan Avenue. Line 1 of the Beijing Subway runs under Changan Avenue, because of its sensitive location, special regulations apply to Changan Avenue. For example, trucks and freight vehicles are banned day and night, note, This article considers Changan Avenue as the major through road from the W. 5th Ring Road through to the E. 5th Ring Road, which defines larger urban Beijing. History of Beijing Media related to Changan Avenue at Wikimedia Commons
6.
Great Hall of the People
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The Great Hall of the People is a state building located at the western edge of Tiananmen Square in Beijing. It is used for legislative and ceremonial activities by the Peoples Republic of China government and it is also the meeting place of the National Congress of the Communist Party of China, which, since 1982, has occurred once every five years. The Great Hall of the People is also an attraction in the city frequented by tourists visiting the capital. The Great Hall of the People was designed by Zhang Bo and it was opened in September 1959, and was one of the Ten Great Constructions completed for the 10th Anniversary of the PRC. The structure was built in 10 months by construction workers and volunteers, the building covers 171,801 square metres of floor space, it is 356 metres in length and 206.5 metres in width. The centre peaks at 46.5 metres, at the eaves of the main gate hangs the national emblem of the PRC. The Great Hall of the People consists of three sections, the central section principally includes the Great Auditorium, the Main Auditorium, the Congress Hall, the Central Hall, the Golden Hall and other main halls. The northern section consists of the State Banquet Hall, the Salute State Guest Hall, the North Hall, the East Hall, the southern part is the office building of the Standing Committee of the Peoples Congress of China. Each province, special administrative region, autonomous region of China has its own hall in the Great Hall, such as Beijing Hall, Hong Kong Hall, each hall has the unique characteristics of the province and is furnished according to the local style. The Great Auditorium, with volume of 90,000 cubic metres, government leaders make their speeches, and the representatives do much of their business. It can simultaneously seat 10,000 representatives, the ceiling is decorated with a galaxy of lights, with a large red star is at the centre of the ceiling, and a pattern of a water waves nearby represents the people. Its facilities equipped with audio-visual and other systems adaptable to a variety of meeting types and sizes, a simultaneous interpretation system is also provided with a language booth. The State Banquet Hall with an area of 7,000 square meters can entertain 7,000 guests, the Great Hall of the People is the political hub of Beijing and home of the National Peoples Congress. The Communist Party of China also holds its National Congress every five years in the Great Hall of the People, the Great Hall has been used for meetings with foreign dignitaries on state or working visits, as well as large anniversary celebrations attended by top leaders. The Great Hall has been used for the funerals and memorial services for several top leaders. Former President Liu Shaoqi was purged during the Cultural Revolution and died in the ensuing struggles and he was posthumously rehabilitated after 1978. In 1982 Liu was granted a funeral held at the Great Hall. The Great Hall also held the funerals of General Secretary Hu Yaobang in 1989 during the Tiananmen Square protests, mao Zedongs funeral ceremony was not held at the Great Hall, it was held at Tiananmen Square
7.
Ten Great Buildings
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The Ten Great Buildings are ten public buildings that were built in Beijing in 1959, to commemorate the tenth anniversary of the founding of the Peoples Republic of China. They were part of an architecture and urbanism initiative of the Great Leap Forward, most of the buildings were completed in a time span of ten months. Two subsequent art campaigns for these buildings were conducted in 1961, the buildings were designed by members of the Beijing Institute of Architectural Design, working with the Beijing Planning Bureau and the Ministry of Construction. The Ten Great Buildings transformed Beijing and these monumental new buildings, constructed on a grand scale and providing modern facilities and services, helped to establish and celebrate an image of Mao Zedongs New China. C. and Moscow. The National Museum of China – Originally known as the China Revolutionary History Museum, the Cultural Palace of Nationalities – Located on the north side of West Changan Avenue, the Nationalities Cultural Palace is a medium rise building incorporating traditional Chinese design elements. It has won a number of awards as an example of modern Chinese-style design, the Beijing Railway Station – Designed by architects Yang Tingbao and Chen Dengao, Beijing Railway Station was the largest modern passenger rail terminal in China at the time of construction. Since its construction, it has served as the terminal of a number of domestic and international services, including services to Moscow, Ulan Bator and it replaced the old Beijing Railway Station at Qianmen, near Tiananmen Square, which had been built in 1901. The Workers Stadium – The multi-purpose stadium was last renovated in 2004 and it hosted the first National Games of the Peoples Republic of China. The National Agriculture Exhibition Hall – Premier Zhou Enlai oversaw the planning of this building and it was first used in 1959 to house the Tenth Anniversary National Agricultural Achievements Exhibition. The Diaoyutai State Guesthouse – The hotel and guesthouse complex is built on the site of an 800-year-old garden dating back to the Jin Dynasty, the building incorporates design elements of traditional Chinese garden architecture. Formerly reserved for visiting dignitaries and Party officials, the guesthouse is now open to the public The Minzu Hotel – The Minzu Hotel is located on West Changan Avenue and it has hosted numerous foreign delegations, and is often used for press conferences. The Overseas Chinese Hotel – The original Overseas Chinese Hotel was demolished in the 1990s, a new building on the same site is now part of the Prime Hotel chain. The Chinese Peoples Revolutionary Military Museum – Located on Fuxing Road in Beijing, displays focus on wars of the twentieth century, especially the Chinese Civil War, but also cover other ancient and modern warfare and weapons. The main building is seven storeys high at the centre, and is topped by a central steeple, two four-storey side wings extend on either side. The art program to coincide with the construction of the Ten Great Buildings was vast in its scope—including some 345 paintings, murals, many were done in the modes of traditional Chinese painting, and others were in the socialist realist style. The Great Hall of the People received much of the commissions attention, one aspect of the decoration in the Great Hall was the correlation of rooms for representatives from each province with regional art by artists from these respective provinces. The artistic centerpiece of this building was a painting by Fu Baoshi. Entitled This Land So Rich in Beauty, it is one of the largest paintings on paper in China, the painting was based on the poem Ode to Snow by Mao Zedong, and includes a transcription of Maos calligraphy of the title
8.
Mao Zedong
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His Marxist–Leninist theories, military strategies, and political policies are collectively known as Maoism or Marxism-Leninism-Maoism. Mao adopted Marxism–Leninism while working at Peking University and became a member of the Communist Party of China. On October 1,1949, Mao proclaimed the foundation of the Peoples Republic of China, in the following years Mao solidified his control through land reform campaigns against landlords, and perceived enemies of the state he termed as counter-revolutionaries. In 1957, he launched the Great Leap Forward campaign that aimed to rapidly transform Chinas economy from an economy to an industrial one. The campaign contributed to a famine, whose death toll is estimated at between 15 and 45 million. In 1972, Mao welcomed American President Richard Nixon in Beijing, signalling a policy of opening China, Mao suffered a series of heart attacks in 1976, and died in September, aged 82. He was succeeded as Paramount leader by Hua Guofeng, who was sidelined and replaced by Deng. A controversial figure, Mao is regarded as one of the most important individuals in modern world history, Mao Zedong was born on December 26,1893 in Shaoshan village, Hunan Province, China. His father, Mao Yichang, was an impoverished peasant who had become one of the wealthiest farmers in Shaoshan. Growing up in rural Hunan, Mao Zedong described his father as a stern disciplinarian, Maos mother, Wen Qimei, was a devout Buddhist who tried to temper her husbands strict attitude. Zedong too became a Buddhist, but abandoned this faith in his mid-teenage years, at age 8, Mao was sent to Shaoshan Primary School. At age 13, Mao finished primary education, and his father united him in a marriage to the 17-year-old Luo Yigu. Mao refused to recognise her as his wife, becoming a critic of arranged marriage. Luo was locally disgraced and died in 1910, interested in history, Mao was inspired by the military prowess and nationalistic fervour of George Washington and Napoleon Bonaparte. The famine spread to Shaoshan, where starving peasants seized his fathers grain and he disapproved of their actions as morally wrong, but claimed sympathy for their situation. At age 16, Mao moved to a primary school in nearby Dongshan. In 1911, Mao began middle school in Changsha, Revolutionary sentiment was strong in the city, where there was widespread animosity towards Emperor Puyis absolute monarchy and many were advocating republicanism. The republicans figurehead was Sun Yat-sen, an American-educated Christian who led the Tongmenghui society, in Changsha, Mao was influenced by Suns newspaper, The Peoples Independence, and called for Sun to become president in a school essay
9.
Liu Shaoqi
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Liu Shaoqi was a Chinese revolutionary, statesman, and theorist. For 15 years, President Liu was the third most powerful man in China, behind only Chairman Mao Zedong and Premier Zhou Enlai. Originally groomed as the successor to Mao, Liu antagonized Mao in the early 1960s before the Cultural Revolution and was criticized, then purged, by Mao starting in 1966. Liu disappeared from public life in 1968 and was labelled the commander of Chinas bourgeoisie headquarters, Chinas foremost capitalist-roader, and he died under harsh treatment in late 1969, but was posthumously rehabilitated by Deng Xiaopings government in 1980 and granted a national memorial service. In 1920, Liu and Ren Bishi joined a Socialist Youth Corp, in 1921 Liu joined the newly formed Chinese Communist Party. Liu went back to China in 1922, and as secretary of the All-China Labor Syndicate, led several railway workers strikes in the Yangzi Valley, in 1925 Liu became a member of the Guangzhou-based All-China Federation of Labor Executive Committee. During the next two years Liu led numerous campaigns and strikes in Hubei and Shanghai. Liu worked with Li Lisan in Shanghai in 1925, organizing Communist activity following the May Thirtieth Incident, after his work in Shanghai Liu traveled to Wuhan. Liu was briefly arrested in Changsha and then returned to Guangzhou to help organize the 16-month-long Canton-Hong Kong strike, in 1927 Liu was elected to the Partys Central Committee, and was appointed to the head of its Labor Department. In 1929 Liu returned to work at the Party headquarters in Shanghai, in 1930 and 1931, Liu attended the Third and Fourth Plenums of the Sixth Central Committee, and was elected to the Central Executive Committee of the Chinese Soviet Republic in 1931 or 1932. Later in 1932 Liu left Shanghai and traveled to the Jiangxi Soviet, in 1932 Liu became the Party Secretary of Fujian Province. In 1936 Liu became Party Secretary in North China, leading the anti-Japanese movements in that area with the assistance of Peng Zhen, An Ziwen, Bo Yibo, Ke Qingshi, Liu Lantao, and Yao Yilin. In 1939 Liu ran the Central Plains Bureau, and, in 1941, some Japanese sources have alleged that the activities of Lius organization sparked the Marco Polo Bridge Incident in July 1937, which gave Japan the excuse to launch the Second Sino-Japanese War. In 1937 Liu traveled to the Communist base at Yanan, and, in 1941, in 1945 Liu was elected as one of five CCP Secretaries at the Seventh National Party Congress. After the Seventh National Party Congress Liu became the leader of all Communist forces in Manchuria and northern China. In 1949, Liu became the Vice Chairman of the Central Peoples Government, in 1954, China adopted a new constitution at the first National Peoples Congress. At the Congresss first session, Liu was elected chairman of the Congresss Standing Committee, from 1956 to his downfall in 1966, Liu ranked as the First Vice Chairman of the Communist Party of China. Lius work focused on party organizational and theoretical affairs, Liu was an orthodox Soviet-style Communist, and favored state planning and the development of heavy industry
10.
Ho Chi Minh
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He was a key figure in the foundation of the Democratic Republic of Vietnam in 1945, as well as the Peoples Army of Vietnam and the Việt Cộng during the Vietnam War. After the war, Saigon, the capital of the Republic of Vietnam, was renamed Hồ Chí Minh City. Ho Chi Minh was born Nguyễn Sinh Cung, in 1890 in the village of Hoàng Trù, from 1895, he grew up in his father Nguyễn Sinh Sắc s village of Làng Sen, Kim Liên, Nam Đàn, Nghệ An Province. He had three siblings, his sister Bạch Liên, a clerk in the French Army, his brother Nguyễn Sinh Khiêm, a geomancer and traditional herbalist, as a young child, Cung studied with his father before more formal classes with a scholar named Vuong Thuc Do. Cung quickly mastered Chinese writing, a prerequisite for any study of Confucianism. In addition to his studious endeavors, he was fond of adventure, following Confucian tradition, at the age of 10, his father gave him a new name, Nguyễn Tất Thành. Thànhs father was a Confucian scholar and teacher, and later a magistrate in the small remote district of Binh Khe. This exposed Thành to rebellion at an age and seemed to be the norm for the province where Thành came of age. The province was known for its resistance to foreign rule, in deference to his father, Thành received a French education, attended lycée in Huế, the alma mater of his later disciples, Phạm Văn Đồng and Võ Nguyên Giáp and his later enemy, Ngô Đình Diệm. Previously, it was believed that Thành was involved in a demonstration of poor peasants in Huế in May 1908. However, a document from the Centre des archives dOutre-mer in France shows that he was admitted to Collège Quốc học on August 8,1908, which was several months after the anti-corvée demonstration. The exaggeration of revolutionary credentials was common among Vietnamese communist leaders and he chose to leave school in order to find a chance to go abroad. Thành worked as a helper on a French steamer, the Amirale de Latouche-Tréville, while using the alias Văn Ba. The steamer departed on 5 June 1911 and arrived in Marseille, the ship then left for Le Havre and Dunkirk, returning to Marseille in mid-September. There he applied for the French Colonial Administrative School but his application was rejected, instead, he decided to begin traveling the world by working on ships and visited many countries from 1911 to 1917. In 1912, while working as the cooks helper on a ship, from 1912–13, he may have lived in New York City and Boston, where he claimed to have worked as a baker at the Parker House Hotel. Inquiries to the Parker House management revealed no records of his ever having worked there, among a series of menial jobs, he claimed to have worked for a wealthy family in Brooklyn between 1917–18, and for General Motors as a line manager. At various points between 1913 and 1919, Thành claimed to have lived in West Ealing, and later in Crouch End and he reportedly worked as either a chef or dish washer at the Drayton Court Hotel in West Ealing
11.
Mikhail Suslov
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Mikhail Andreyevich Suslov was a Soviet statesman during the Cold War. He served as Second Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union from 1965, Suslov was responsible for party democracy and the power separation within the Communist Party. His hardline attitude toward change made him one of the foremost anti-reformist Soviet leaders, born in rural Russia in 1902, Suslov became a member of the All-Union Communist Party in 1921 and studied economics for much of the 1920s. He left his job as a teacher in 1931 to pursue politics full-time, Suslov impressed the Soviet leadership to such an extent in the pre-Eastern Front Soviet Union that he was made First Secretary of Stavropol Krai administrative area. During the war, Suslov headed the local Stavropol guerrilla movement and he became a member of the Organisational Bureau of the Central Committee in 1946 and, four years later, was elected to the Presidium of the All-Union Communist Party. Suslov lost much of the recognition and influence he had earned following the reshuffle of the Soviet leadership after Stalins death, however, by the late 1950s, Suslov had risen to become the leader of the hardline opposition to Nikita Khrushchevs revisionist leadership. After Khrushchev was ousted in 1964, Suslov supported the establishment of a collective leadership and he also supported inner-party democracy and opposed the reestablishment of the one-man rule as seen during the Stalin and Khrushchev Eras. During the Brezhnev Era, Suslov was considered to be the Partys Chief Ideologue and his death on 25 January 1982 is viewed as starting the battle to succeed Leonid Brezhnev in the post of General Secretary. Suslov was born in Shakhovskoye, a locality in Pavlovsky District, Ulyanovsk Oblast. Suslov began work in the local Komsomol organisation in Saratov in 1918, after working in the Komsomol for nearly three years, Suslov became a member of the All-Union Communist Party in 1921. After graduating from the rabfak, he studied economics at the Plekhanov Institute of National Economy between 1924–1928, in 1931 he abandoned teaching in favour of the party apparatus. He became an inspector on the Communist Partys Party Control Commission and on the Peoples Commissariat of the Workers and his main task there was to adjudicate on large numbers of personal cases, breaches of discipline, and appeals against expulsion from the party. In 1933 and 1934 Suslov directed a commission charged with purging the party in the Ural, the purge was organised by Lazar Kaganovich, then Chairman of the Soviet Control Commission. On the orders of Joseph Stalin, Suslov purged the city of Rostov in 1938, Suslov was made First Secretary of the Stavropol Krais Communist Party in 1939. On the Eastern Front in World War II, Suslov was a member of the Military Soviet of the Northern Group of Forces, according to Soviet historiography, Suslovs years as a guerrilla fighter were highly successful, however, testimonies from participants differ from the official account. These participants claim that there were a number of problems which reduced their effectiveness on the battlefield. During the war, Suslov spent much of his time mobilising workers to fight against the German invaders, the guerrilla movement he led was operated by the regional party cells. During the liberation of the Northern Caucasus, Suslov maintained close contact with the Red Army, during the war, Suslov supervised the deportations of Chechens and other Muslim minorities from the Caucasus
12.
Mehmet Shehu
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}} Mehmet Ismail Shehu was an Albanian communist politician who served as the 23rd Prime Minister of Albania from 1954 to 1981. Mehmet Shehu shared power with Enver Hoxha from the end of the Second World War, persistent rumors remain, however, that Shehu was actually murdered on orders from Hoxha. Shehu was born in Çorrush, Mallakastër District, southern Albania and he graduated in 1932 at the Tirana Albanian Vocational High School funded by the American Red Cross. Unsuccessful in finding employment within the Ministry of Agriculture he managed to get a scholarship to attend the Nunziatella military academy of Naples and he joined the Spanish Communist Party and rose to the command of the Fourth Battalion of the XIIth Garibaldi Brigade. After the defeat of the Republican forces he was arrested in France in early 1939 as he was retreating from Spain along with his friends. He was imprisoned in an internment camp in France and later was transferred to an Italian internment camp, in 1942 he returned to Albania, which was under Italian occupation, where he immediately joined the Albanian Communist Party and the Albanian resistance. In 1943, he was elected as a member of the Central Committee of the Communist Party. In August 1943, due to his experience, he rose swiftly to commander of the 1st Partisan Assault Brigade. Thereafter, he was the commander of 1st Partisan Assault Division of the National Liberation Army, from 1944 to 1945 he was a member of the Anti-Fascist Council of National Liberation. After Albania was liberated from the German occupation, Shehu became the deputy chief of the staff and, after he studied in Moscow. Later, he was also a lieutenant general and a full general, in 1948, Shehu expurgated from the party the element who tried to separate Albania from the Soviet Union and lead her under Belgrades influence. This made him the nearest person to Enver Hoxha and brought him high offices, however, he remained in Hoxhas shadow. From 1948, he was a member of the Central Committee and the Politburo of the Party of Labour of Albania and he lost the latter position on June 24 when Enver Hoxha gave up the posts of Minister of Defence and Minister of Foreign Affairs while retaining the premiership. Hoxha was probably not willing to yield too much power to him, from 1948 to 1954 he was deputy prime minister and Minister of Internal Affairs. The latter post made him commander of the police, the Sigurimi. In 1954, he succeeded Hoxha as Prime Minister, from 1974 he was also the Minister of Peoples Defence while from 1947 to his death he was a deputy of the Peoples Assembly. During the war, Shehu won a reputation for brutality, on his command most clan chiefs in the mountains of northern Albania were executed. S. Shehu was considered Enver Hoxhas right-hand man and the second most powerful man in Albania, for 40 years Hoxha was Shehus friend and closest comrade
13.
Yumjaagiin Tsedenbal
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Yumjaagiin Tsedenbal was the leader of Mongolia from 1940 to 1984. During his political life, he served as minister and general secretary of the Mongolian Peoples Party. Tsedenbal was born to an ethnic Dörvöd poor nomadic family in Zorigt Khan hoshuu of the Unen Zorigt Khan aimag and he was the fifth of eleven children in his family. In 1925 Tsedenbal became among the first students in the newly organized public school in Ulaangom, the same year Tsedenbal went to Irkutsk to continue his education. He spent about nine years between Irkutsk and Ulan-Ude and he obtained a degree from the Siberian Finance and Economics Institute. In 1939, having returned to Ulaanbaatar, Tsedenbal worked first as a deputy minister, in 1940, at the 10th Congress of the Mongolian Peoples Revolutionary Party, he became the partys General Secretary at age 23. He held this office until 11 June 1974, when he became head of state and his foreign policy was marked by efforts to bring Mongolia into ever-closer cooperation with the USSR. Still, Tsedenbal and his group of party leaders were dissatisfied with the role that the Soviet leadership assigned to Mongolia. With the full backing of the Soviets, Tsedenbal successfully purged his political opponents, at the time of the Sino-Soviet split, Tsedenbal decisively sided with the Soviet Union and incurred Chinas wrath. In Mongolia, Tsedenbal is remembered for successfully maintaining a path of moderate socialism during the Cold War. Jambyn Batmönkh became the secretary of the MPRP. Tsedenbal remained in Moscow until his death, his body was brought to Mongolia and his Russian wife, Anastasia Ivanovna Filatova, was often said to be the most powerful political figure in Mongolia due to her close relationship with the Soviet leader Leonid Brezhnev. Nadirov, Sh. G. Tsedenbal and the Events of August 1984, a Political History of the Mongolian People’s Republic, 1900–1978. Moscow and Irkutsk, Izdatel’ Sapronov,2004
14.
Kim Il-sung
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Kim Il-sung was the supreme leader of the Democratic Peoples Republic of Korea, commonly referred to as North Korea, for 46 years, from its establishment in 1948 until his death in 1994. He held the posts of Prime Minister from 1948 to 1972 and he was also the leader of the Workers Party of Korea from 1949 to 1994. Coming to power after the overthrow of Japanese rule in 1945, he authorized the invasion of South Korea in 1950, a cease-fire in the Korean War was signed on 27 July 1953. Under his leadership, North Korea became a workers state with a publicly owned planned economy. It had close political and economic relations with the Soviet Union, by the 1960s and 1970s, North Korea enjoyed a relatively high standard of living, outperforming the South, which was riddled with political instability and economic crises. Despite this, the country still received massive funds, subsidies, during this period, the DPRK also remained critical of capitalism and the United States, seizing the American ship USS Pueblo in 1968. A cult of personality around Kim Il-sung came to domestic politics. His birthday is a holiday in North Korea and is called the Day of the Sun. Controversy surrounds Kims life before the founding of North Korea, with some sources labeling him an impostor, several sources indicate that the name Kim Il-sung had previously been used by a prominent early leader of the Korean resistance, Kim Kyung-cheon. The Soviet officer Grigory Mekler, who worked with Kim during the Soviet occupation, however, historian Andrei Lankov has argued that this is unlikely to be true. Several witnesses knew Kim before and after his time in the Soviet Union, including his superior, Zhou Baozhong, historian Bruce Cumings pointed out that Japanese officers from the Kwantung Army have attested to his fame as a resistance figure. Historians generally accept that, while Kims exploits were exaggerated by the personality cult that was built around him, Kims family is said to have originated from Jeonju, North Jeolla Province. His great-grandfather, Kim Ung-u, settled in Mangyong-dae in 1860, Kim is reported to have been born in the small village of Mangyungbong near Pyongyang on 15 April 1912. Born to Kim Hyŏng-jik and Kang Pan-sŏk, who gave him the name Kim Sŏng-ju, according to Kim, his family was not very poor, but was always a step away from poverty. According to the version, Kim’s family participated in anti-Japanese activities. Like most Korean families, they resented the Japanese occupation of the Korean peninsula, another view seems to be that his family settled in Manchuria, as many Koreans had at the time to escape famine. Nonetheless, Kims parents, especially Kims mother Kang Ban Suk and their exact involvement — whether their cause was missionary, nationalist, or both — is unclear nevertheless. Still, Japanese repression of opposition was brutal, resulting in the arrest and this repression forced many Korean families to flee Korea and settle in Manchuria
15.
Nikita Khrushchev
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Nikita Sergeyevich Khrushchev was a politician who led the Soviet Union during part of the Cold War. He served as First Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union from 1953 to 1964, Khrushchevs party colleagues removed him from power in 1964, replacing him with Leonid Brezhnev as First Secretary and Alexei Kosygin as Premier. Khrushchev was born in the village of Kalinovka in 1894, close to the border between Russia and Ukraine. He was employed as a metalworker in his youth, and during the Russian Civil War was a political commissar, with the help of Lazar Kaganovich, he worked his way up the Soviet hierarchy. He supported Joseph Stalins purges, and approved thousands of arrests, in 1938, Stalin sent him to govern Ukraine, and he continued the purges there. During what was known in the Soviet Union as the Great Patriotic War, Khrushchev was again a commissar, Khrushchev was present at the bloody defense of Stalingrad, a fact he took great pride in throughout his life. After the war, he returned to Ukraine before being recalled to Moscow as one of Stalins close advisers, in the power struggle triggered by Stalins death in 1953, Khrushchev, after several years, emerged victorious. On 25 February 1956, at the 20th Party Congress, he delivered the Secret Speech, denouncing Stalins purges and his domestic policies, aimed at bettering the lives of ordinary citizens, were often ineffective, especially in agriculture. Hoping eventually to rely on missiles for defense, Khrushchev ordered major cuts in conventional forces. Despite the cuts, Khrushchevs rule saw the most tense years of the Cold War, flaws in Khrushchevs policies eroded his popularity and emboldened potential opponents, who quietly rose in strength and deposed the premier in October 1964. However, he did not suffer the fate of previous losers of Soviet power struggles, and was pensioned off with an apartment in Moscow. His lengthy memoirs were smuggled to the West and published in part in 1970, Khrushchev died in 1971 of heart disease. Khrushchev was born on 15 April 1894, in Kalinovka, a village in what is now Russias Kursk Oblast and his parents, Sergei Khrushchev and Ksenia Khrushcheva, were poor peasants of Russian origin, and had a daughter two years Nikitas junior, Irina. Sergei Khrushchev was employed in a number of positions in the Donbas area of far eastern Ukraine, working as a railwayman, as a miner, and laboring in a brick factory. Wages were much higher in the Donbas than in the Kursk region, Kalinovka was a peasant village, Khrushchevs teacher, Lydia Shevchenko, later stated that she had never seen a village as poor as Kalinovka had been. Nikita worked as a herdsboy from an early age and he was schooled for a total of four years, part in the village parochial school and part under Shevchenkos tutelage in Kalinovkas state school. She urged Nikita to seek education, but family finances did not permit this. In 1908, Sergei Khrushchev moved to the Donbas city of Yuzovka, fourteen-year-old Nikita followed later that year, while Ksenia Khrushcheva and her daughter came after
16.
Zhou Enlai
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Zhou Enlai was the first Premier of the Peoples Republic of China, serving from October 1949 until his death in January 1976. Zhou served under Chairman Mao Zedong and was instrumental in the Communist Partys rise to power, and later in consolidating its control, forming foreign policy, a skilled and able diplomat, Zhou served as the Chinese foreign minister from 1949 to 1958. He helped devise policies regarding the disputes with the U. S. Taiwan. Zhou survived the purges of other top officials during the Cultural Revolution, while Mao dedicated most of his later years to political struggle and ideological work, Zhou was the main driving force behind the affairs of state during much of the Cultural Revolution. His attempts at mitigating the Red Guards damage and his efforts to protect others from their wrath made him popular in the Cultural Revolutions later stages. As Mao Zedongs health began to decline in 1971 and 1972, Zhous health was also failing, however, and he died eight months before Mao on 8 January 1976. The massive public outpouring of grief in Beijing turned to anger towards the Gang of Four, although succeeded by Hua Guofeng, it was Deng Xiaoping, Zhous ally, who was able to outmaneuver the Gang of Four politically and eventually take Maos place as paramount leader by 1978. Zhou Enlai was born in Huaian, Jiangsu province on 5 March 1898, the Zhou family was originally from Shaoxing in Zhejiang province. During the late Qing dynasty, Shaoxing was famous as the home of such as Zhous. To move up the ladder in civil service, the men in these often had to be transferred. Even after the move, however, the continued to view Shaoxing as its ancestral home. Zhous grandfather, Zhou Panlong, and his granduncle, Zhou Junang, were the first members of the family to move to Huaian, Panlong apparently passed the provincial examinations, and Zhou Enlai later claimed that Panlong served as magistrate governing Huaian county. Zhous father, Zhou Yineng, was the second of Zhou Panlongs four sons, Zhous birth mother, surnamed Wan, was the daughter of a prominent Jiangsu official. Like many others, the fortunes of Zhous large family of scholar-officials were decimated by a great economic recession that China suffered in the late 19th century. Zhou Yineng had a reputation for honesty, gentleness, intelligence and concern for others and he was unsuccessful in his personal life, and drifted across China doing various occupations, working in Beijing, Shandong, Anhui, Shenyang, Inner Mongolia and Sichuan. Zhou Enlai later remembered his father as being away from home. Soon after birth, Zhou Enlai was adopted by his fathers youngest brother, Zhou Yigan, apparently the adoption was arranged because the family feared Yigan would die without an heir. Zhou Yigan died soon after the adoption, and Zhou Enlai was raised by Yigans widow, madame Chen was also from a scholarly family and received a traditional literary education
17.
Andrei Gromyko
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Andrei Andreyevich Gromyko was a Soviet communist politician during the Cold War. He served as Minister of Foreign Affairs and as Chairman of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet, Gromyko was responsible for many top decisions on Soviet foreign policy until he retired in 1988. In the 1940s Western pundits called him Mr. Nyet or Grim Grom, Gromykos political career started in 1939 with his employment at the Peoples Commissariat for Foreign Affairs. In 1943 Gromyko became the Soviet ambassador to the United States, upon his return to the Soviet Union he became a Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs and later the First Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs. He went on to become the Soviet ambassador to the United Kingdom in 1952, Gromyko played a direct role in the Cuban Missile Crisis in his role as the Soviet Foreign Minister. Gromyko helped negotiate arms limitations treaties such as the ABM Treaty, the Nuclear Test Ban Treaty, under Leonid Brezhnevs leadership Gromyko helped build the policy of détente between the US and the USSR. He supported Mikhail Gorbachevs candidacy for General Secretary in 1985, Gromyko lost his office as foreign minister when Gorbachev became General Secretary, and was instead appointed to the largely ceremonial office of head of state. Gromyko retired from life in 1988 and died the following year in Moscow. Gromyko was born to a poor semi-peasant, semi-worker family in the Belarusian village of Staryya Gramyki, Gromykos father, Andrei Matveyevich, worked as a seasonal worker in a local factory. Andrei Matveyevich was not an educated man, having only attended four years of school. He had fought in the Russo-Japanese War of 1904–1905, Gromykos mother, Olga Yevgenyevna, came from a poor peasant family in the neighbouring city of Zhelezniki. She attended school only for a period of time as. Gromyko grew up near the town of Vetka where most of the inhabitants were devoted Old Believers in the Russian Orthodox Church. Gromykos own village was also religious, but Gromyko started doubting the supernatural at a very early age. His first dialog on the subject was with his grandmother Marfa, then you will understand all this much better. According to Gromyko, Other adults said basically the same thing when talking about religion, Gromykos neighbour at the time, Mikhail Sjeljutov, was a freethinker and introduced Gromyko to new non-religious ideas and told Gromyko that scientists were beginning to doubt the existence of God. From the age of nine, after the Bolshevik revolution, Gromyko started reading atheist propaganda in flyers, at the age of thirteen Gromyko became a member of the Komsomol and held anti-religious speeches in the village with his friends as well as promoting Communist values. The news that Germany had attacked the Russian Empire in August 1914 came without warning to the local population and this was the first time, as Gromyko notes, that he felt love for his country
18.
United States
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Forty-eight of the fifty states and the federal district are contiguous and located in North America between Canada and Mexico. The state of Alaska is in the northwest corner of North America, bordered by Canada to the east, the state of Hawaii is an archipelago in the mid-Pacific Ocean. The U. S. territories are scattered about the Pacific Ocean, the geography, climate and wildlife of the country are extremely diverse. At 3.8 million square miles and with over 324 million people, the United States is the worlds third- or fourth-largest country by area, third-largest by land area. It is one of the worlds most ethnically diverse and multicultural nations, paleo-Indians migrated from Asia to the North American mainland at least 15,000 years ago. European colonization began in the 16th century, the United States emerged from 13 British colonies along the East Coast. Numerous disputes between Great Britain and the following the Seven Years War led to the American Revolution. On July 4,1776, during the course of the American Revolutionary War, the war ended in 1783 with recognition of the independence of the United States by Great Britain, representing the first successful war of independence against a European power. The current constitution was adopted in 1788, after the Articles of Confederation, the first ten amendments, collectively named the Bill of Rights, were ratified in 1791 and designed to guarantee many fundamental civil liberties. During the second half of the 19th century, the American Civil War led to the end of slavery in the country. By the end of century, the United States extended into the Pacific Ocean. The Spanish–American War and World War I confirmed the status as a global military power. The end of the Cold War and the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991 left the United States as the sole superpower. The U. S. is a member of the United Nations, World Bank, International Monetary Fund, Organization of American States. The United States is a developed country, with the worlds largest economy by nominal GDP. It ranks highly in several measures of performance, including average wage, human development, per capita GDP. While the U. S. economy is considered post-industrial, characterized by the dominance of services and knowledge economy, the United States is a prominent political and cultural force internationally, and a leader in scientific research and technological innovations. In 1507, the German cartographer Martin Waldseemüller produced a map on which he named the lands of the Western Hemisphere America after the Italian explorer and cartographer Amerigo Vespucci
19.
Soong Ching-ling
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Soong Ching-ling was the second wife of Sun Yat-sen, one of the leaders of the 1911 revolution that established the Republic of China, and was often referred to as Madame Sun Yat-sen. She was a member of the Soong family and, together with her siblings and she has become known as the mother of modern China. During the Cultural Revolution, however, she was heavily criticized, Soong survived the Cultural Revolution, but appeared less frequently after 1976. As the chairman of the Standing Committee of the National Peoples Congress from 1976 to 1978, during her final illness in May 1981, she was given the special title of Honorary President of the Peoples Republic of China. Soong Ching-ling was born to businessman and missionary Charlie Soong in Chuansha, Pudong, Shanghai and she graduated from McTyeire School for Girls in Shanghai, and Wesleyan College in Macon, Georgia, United States. Like her sisters, she spoke fluent English due to being educated in English for most of her life, Soong married Sun Yat-sen, leader of Chinas 1911 revolution and founder of the Kuomintang, on 25 October 1915, even though her parents greatly opposed the match. After Suns death in 1925, she was elected to the KMT Central Executive Committee, however, she left China for Moscow after the expulsion of the Communists from the KMT in 1927, accusing the KMT of betraying her husbands legacy. Her younger sister, May-ling, married Chiang Kai-shek shortly afterward and she resided afterwards in Shanghai until July 1937, when the Second Sino-Japanese War broke out. Following the outbreak of hostilities, she moved first to Hong Kong, then to Chongqing, in 1939, she founded the China Defense League, which raised funds and sought supplies primarily for the Chinese Communist controlled areas of northern China. In 1946, the League was renamed the China Welfare fund, continuing to seek funds, during the Chinese Civil War, Soong permanently broke with her family and supported the Communists. In 1948, she became chairwoman of the Revolutionary Committee of the Kuomintang. On 1 October, she was a guest at the ceremony in Tiananmen Square marking the birth of the new Peoples Republic of China, the Nationalist government issued an order for her arrest, but this was soon mooted by the swift military victory of the Communists. The KMT fled from mainland China to Taiwan soon after this, Soong was held in great esteem by the victorious Communists, who reckoned her as a link between their movement and Suns earlier movement. In April 1951, it was announced that she had awarded the Stalin Peace Prize for 1950. In 1950, Soong became chairman of the Chinese Peoples Relief Administration and her China Welfare Fund was reorganized as the China Welfare Institute and began publishing the magazine China Reconstructs, now published as China Today. In 1953, a collection of her writings, Struggle for New China, was published, in 1953 Soong served on the committees preparing for elections to the new National Peoples Congress and the drafting of the 1954 constitution. Soong was elected a Shanghai deputy to the first NPC, which adopted the constitution at its first meeting in September 1954 and she was elected one of 14 vice-chairmen of the NPCs standing committee, chaired by Liu Shaoqi. In December of the year, she was elected a vice-chairman of the CPPCC, which became a consultative body
20.
Zhu De
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Zhu De was a Chinese general, warlord, politician, revolutionary, and one of the pioneers of the Communist Party of China. Born poor in 1886 in Sichuan, Zhu was adopted by an uncle at age nine. After his time at the academy, he joined a rebel army and it was after this period that he adopted communism. He ascended through the ranks of the Red Army as it closed in on securing the nation, by the time China was under Maos control, Zhu was a high-ranking official within the Communist Party of China. He served as Commander-in-Chief during the Second Sino-Japanese War, in 1955, Zhu became one of the Ten Marshals of the Peoples Liberation Army, of which he is regarded as the principal founder. Zhu remained a prominent political figure until his death in 1976, as the chairman of the Standing Committee of the National Peoples Congress from 1975 to 1976, Zhu was the head of state of the Peoples Republic of China. Zhu was born on December 18,1886, to a tenant farmers family in Hung, a town in Yilong County. Of the fifteen children born to the only eight survived. His family relocated to Sichuan during the migration from Hunan province and his origins are often given as Hakka, but Agnes Smedleys biography of him says his people came from Guangdong and speaks of Hakka as merely associates of his. She also says that older generations of his family had spoken the Kwangtung dialect (which would be close to, and that his generation also spoke the Szechwan dialect, Sichuanese, a distinct regional variant of Southwest Mandarin that is unintelligible to other speakers of Standard Chinese. In spite of the poverty, by pooling resources, Zhu was chosen to be sent to a regional private school in 1892. At age nine, Zhu was adopted by his prosperous uncle, before the suspension of imperial examinations in 1906, he attained the rank of Xiucai, which allowed him to qualify as a civil servant. He enrolled in a Sichuan high school around 1907, and graduated in 1908, subsequently, he returned to Yilongs primary school as a gym instructor. There, he joined the Beiyang Army and the Tongmenghui secret political society and it was at the Yunnan Military Academy in Kunming, that Zhu first met Cai E. He taught at the Academy after his graduation in July 1911, siding with the revolutionary forces after the Chinese Revolution, he joined Brigadier Cai E in the October 1911 expeditionary force that marched on Qing forces in Sichuan. He served as a commander in the campaign to unseat Yuan Shikai in 1915-16. When Cai became governor of Sichuan after Yuans death in June 1916, following the death of his mentor Cai E and of his first wife, Zhu developed a severe opium habit that afflicted him until 1922, when he underwent treatment in Shanghai. His troops continued to him, and so he consolidated his forces to become a warlord
21.
Dong Biwu
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Dong Biwu was a Chinese communist political leader during the regime of Chairman Mao Zedong. Dong served as the Vice President and acting President of China, Dong Biwu was born in Huanggang, Hubei. In 1911 he joined the Tongmenghui, and participated in the Xinhai Revolution, twice he went to Japan to study at Nihon University. In 1921 he attended the 1st Congress of the Communist Party of China as a representative of Wuhan, Mao Zedong and Dong Biwu were the only two men to attend both the 1st Congress and the establishment of the Peoples Republic of China at Tiananmen in 1949. He was Vice President of China from 1959 until 1975, jointly with Soong Ching-ling, in 1975, the office of president was abolished and the Chairman of the Standing Committee of the National Peoples Congress - then Zhu De - became formal head of state. Dong was elected Vice Chairman of the Standing Committee of Peoples National Congress, Dong was a member of Politburo of the Communist Party of China from 1945 to 1975. He was elected one of nine members of the Standing Committee of the Politburo at 10th Congress of the Communist Party in 1973 and he died a year before Mao and several other important politicians like Zhou Enlai and Zhu De. In 1991, a statue of Dong Biwu was erected in one of Wuhans central squares, Hubei Provincial museum houses a collection of Dongs personal items
22.
Deng Xiaoping
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Deng Xiaoping was a Chinese revolutionary and statesman. He was the paramount leader of the Peoples Republic of China from 1978 until his retirement in 1989, after Chairman Mao Zedongs death, Deng led his country through far-reaching market-economy reforms. While Deng never held office as the head of state, head of government or General Secretary, he nonetheless was responsible for economic reforms and an opening to the global economy. Born into a peasant background in Guangan, Sichuan province, Deng studied and worked in France in the 1920s and he joined the Communist Party of China in 1923. Following the founding of the Peoples Republic in 1949, Deng worked in Tibet, as the partys Secretary General in the 1950s, Deng presided over anti-rightist campaigns and became instrumental in Chinas economic reconstruction following the Great Leap Forward of 1957-1960. His economic policies, however, were at odds with Maos political ideologies, following Maos death in 1976, Deng outmaneuvered Maos chosen successor, Hua Guofeng. Some called him the architect of a new brand of thinking that combined socialist ideology with pragmatic market economy whose slogan was Socialism with Chinese Characteristics. Deng possibly has ancestry from ethnically Hakka Han family in the village of Paifang, in the township of Xiexing, Guangan County in Sichuan province, approximately 160 km from Chongqing. Dengs ancestors can be traced back to Mei County, Guangdong, a prominent ancestral area for the Hakka people, Deng Xiaopings daughter Deng Rong wrote in the book My father Deng Xiaoping that his ancestry was probably but not definitely Hakka. Deng Xiaoping was born in Sichuan, Dengs father, Deng Wenming, was a middle-level landowner and had studied at the University of Law and Political Science in Chengdu. His mother, surnamed Dan, died early in Dengs life, leaving Deng, at the age of five Deng was sent to a traditional Chinese-style private primary school, followed by a more modern primary school at the age of seven. Dengs first wife, one of his schoolmates from Moscow, died aged 24 a few days after giving birth to Dengs first child and his second wife, Jin Weiying, left him after Deng came under political attack in 1933. His third wife Zhuo Lin was the daughter of an industrialist in Yunnan Province and she became a member of the Communist Party in 1938, and married Deng a year later in front of Maos cave dwelling in Yanan. They had five children, three daughters and two sons, when Deng first attended school, his tutor objected to his having the given name Xiānshèng, calling him Xixian, which includes the characters to aspire to and goodness, with overtones of wisdom. In the summer of 1919 Deng Xiaoping graduated from the Chongqing School and he and 80 schoolmates travelled by ship to France to participate in the Diligent Work-Frugal Study Movement, a work-study program in which 4,001 Chinese would participate by 1927. Deng, the youngest of all the Chinese students in the group, had just turned 15, wu Yuzhang, local leader of the Movement in Chongqing, enrolled Deng and his paternal uncle, Deng Shaosheng, in the program. Dengs father strongly supported his sons participation in the work-study abroad program, the night before his departure, Dengs father took his son aside and asked him what he hoped to learn in France. He repeated the words he had learned from his teachers, To learn knowledge, Deng was aware that China was suffering greatly, and that the Chinese people must have a modern education to save their country
23.
Shanghai
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Shanghai is the most populous city proper in the world, with a population of more than 24 million as of 2014. As one of the four direct-controlled municipalities of the Peoples Republic of China, it is a financial centre and transport hub. Located in the Yangtze River Delta in East China, Shanghai sits on the edge of the mouth of the Yangtze in the middle portion of the eastern Chinese coast. The municipality borders the provinces of Jiangsu and Zhejiang to the north, south and west, as a major administrative, shipping and trading city, Shanghai grew in importance in the 19th century due to trade and recognition of its favourable port location and economic potential. The city was one of five treaty ports forced open to foreign trade following the British victory over China in the First Opium War, the subsequent 1842 Treaty of Nanking and 1844 Treaty of Whampoa allowed the establishment of the Shanghai International Settlement and the French Concession. The city then flourished as a center of commerce between China and other parts of the world, and became the financial hub of the Asia-Pacific region in the 1930s. However, with the Communist Party takeover of the mainland in 1949, trade was limited to other socialist countries, and the citys global influence declined. In the 1990s, the reforms introduced by Deng Xiaoping resulted in an intense re-development of the city, aiding the return of finance. The two Chinese characters in the name are 上 and 海, together meaning Upon-the-Sea. The earliest occurrence of this dates from the 11th-century Song Dynasty, at which time there was already a river confluence. There are disputes as to exactly how the name should be understood, Shanghai is officially abbreviated 沪 in Chinese, a contraction of 沪渎, a 4th- or 5th-century Jin name for the mouth of Suzhou Creek when it was the main conduit into the ocean. This character appears on all motor vehicle license plates issued in the municipality today, another alternative name for Shanghai is Shēn or Shēnchéng, from Lord Chunshen, a third-century BC nobleman and prime minister of the state of Chu, whose fief included modern Shanghai. Sports teams and newspapers in Shanghai often use Shen in their names, such as Shanghai Shenhua F. C. Huating was another early name for Shanghai. In AD751, during the dynasty, Huating County was established at modern-day Songjiang. Today, Huating appears as the name of a hotel in the city. The city also has various nicknames in English, including Pearl of the Orient, during the Spring and Autumn period, the Shanghai area belonged to the Kingdom of Wu, which was conquered by the Kingdom of Yue, which in turn was conquered by the Kingdom of Chu. During the Warring States period, Shanghai was part of the fief of Lord Chunshen of Chu and he ordered the excavation of the Huangpu River. Its former or poetic name, the Chunshen River, gave Shanghai its nickname of Shen, two important events helped promote Shanghais development in the Ming dynasty
24.
Guangzhou
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Guangzhou, traditionally romanised as Canton, is the capital and most populous city of the province of Guangdong in southern China. Guangzhou is currently, the third city in mainland China, behind Beijing and Shanghai, holds sub-provincial administrative status. In 2015 the citys area was estimated to have a population of 13,501,100. Some estimates place the population of the area of the Pearl River Delta Mega City as high as 44 million without the Hong Kong SAR and 54 million including it. Guangzhou is ranked as a Beta+ Global city, in recent years, there has been a rapidly increasing number of foreign residents and illegal immigrants from Southeast Asia, the Middle East and Eastern Europe, as well as from Africa. This has led to it being dubbed the Capital of the Third World, the migrant population from other provinces of China in Guangzhou was 40 percent of the citys total population in 2008. Long the only Chinese port accessible to foreign traders, the city fell to the British during the First Opium War. No longer enjoying a monopoly after the war, it lost trade to ports such as Hong Kong and Shanghai. In modern commerce, Guangzhou is best known for its annual Canton Fair, for the three consecutive years 2013–2015, Forbes ranked Guangzhou as the best commercial city on the Chinese mainland. Guǎngzhōu is the pinyin romanisation of the Chinese name 廣州, which was simplified in mainland China to 广州 in the 1950s, before acquiring its current name, the town was known as Panyu, a name still borne by one of Guangzhous districts. The origin of the name is uncertain, with 11 various explanations being offered. The city has sometimes been known as Guangzhou Fu or Guangfu after its status as the capital of a commandery. From this latter name, Guangzhou was known to medieval Persians such as Al-Masudi, under the Southern Han, the city was renamed Xingwang. Under the Qing, it was known to its inhabitants as simply The Provincial Capital. The Chinese abbreviation for Guangzhou is 穗, after its nickname Rice City, the former name City of the Immortals came from the same story. The more recent City of Flowers is usually taken as a reference to the areas greenery. The English name Canton derived from Portuguese Cantão or Cidade de Cantão, although it originally and chiefly applied to the walled city, it was also used in English in reference to Guangdong generally. It was adopted as the Postal Map Romanization of Guangzhou and remained in use until the gradual adoption of pinyin
25.
Shenyang
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Shenyangs city region includes the ten metropolitan districts of Shenyang proper, the county-level city of Xinmin, and two counties of Kangping and Faku. In the 17th century, Shenyang was conquered by the Manchu people, along with its nearby cities, Shenyang is an important industrial center in China, and serves as the transportation and commercial hub of Chinas northeast — particularly with Japan, Russia and Korea. A center of industry in China since the 1930s, and the spearhead of the Chinese central governments Northeast Area Revitalization Plan. The citys name, Shenyang, literally means the Yang side of the Shen River, referring to the fact that the Hun River, according to Chinese tradition, a rivers north bank and a mountains south slope are considered to be the sunny – or Yang – side. Archaeological findings show that humans resided in present-day Shenyang as early as 8,000 years ago, the remains of the Xinle culture, a late neolithic period society over 6, 800–7,200 years old, are located in a museum in the north part of Huanggu District. It is complemented by a village on site. A wood-sculptured bird unearthed there is the earliest cultural relic in Shenyang, the city now known as Shenyang was first established in about 300 BCE during the Warring States period by Yan general Qin Kai, who conquered the Liaodong region, and was then named Hou City. However, around 350 years later during the reign of Emperor Guangwu of Han and it came back to prominence during early Liao dynasty and was known as the Shen Prefecture through to the end of Jin dynasty, and became the Shenyang Circuit during the Yuan dynasty. During the Ming dynasty, it was designated as a town named Shenyang Central Guard. In 1625, the Manchu leader Nurhaci captured Shenyang and decided to relocate his entire administrative infrastructures to the city, the official name was changed to Shengjing, or Mukden, in 1634. The new name derives from the Manchu word, mukdembi, meaning to rise as reflected also by its Han Chinese name, under Nurhacis orders, the Imperial Palace was constructed in 1626, symbolizing the citys emerging status as the Jurchen political center. The palace featured more than 300 ostentatiously decorated rooms and 20 gardens as a symbol of power, however, Shenyang retained considerable importance as the secondary capital and the spiritual home of the Qing dynasty through the centuries. Treasures of the house were kept at its palaces. In 1657, Fengtian Prefecture was established in the Shenyang area, during the Russo-Japanese War, Mukden was the site of the Battle of Mukden from February 19 to March 10,1905. Involving more than 600,000 combat participants, it was the largest battle since the Battle of Leipzig in 1813, following the Japanese victory, Mukden became one of the chief bases of Japanese presence and economic expansion into southern Manchuria. It also became the government seat of Fengtian province in 1910, in 1914, the city changed back to its old name Shenyang, but continued to be known as Mukden in some English sources and in Japan through much of the first half of 20th century. The postmark of the Chinese postal administration kept the spelling MOUKDEN/奉天 for usage on international mails until the late 1920s, after that, a Chinese–Manchurian bilingual type SHENYANG /瀋陽 datestamp was used until 1933. In the early 20th century, Shenyang began expanding out of its old city walls, the Shenyang Railway Station on the South Manchurian Railway and the Shenyang North Railway Station on the Jingfeng Railway, both west of the old city, became the new commercial centers of Shenyang
26.
Wuhan
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Wuhan is the capital of Hubei province, China, and is the most populous city in Central China. It lies in the eastern Jianghan Plain at the intersection of the reaches of the Yangtze. Because of its key role in transportation, Wuhan was sometimes referred to as the Chicago of China by foreign sources. Holding sub-provincial status, Wuhan is recognized as the political, economic, financial, cultural, educational, the city of Wuhan, first termed as such in 1927, has a population of 10,607,700 people as of 2015. In the 1920s, Wuhan was the capital of a leftist Kuomintang government led by Wang Jingwei in opposition to Chiang Kai-shek. At the 2010 census, its built-up area made of 8 out of 10 urban districts was home to 8,821,658 inhabitants, with a 3, 500-year-long history, Wuhan is one of the most ancient and civilized metropolitan cities in China. During the Han dynasty, Hanyang became a busy port. Around that time, walls were built to protect Hanyang and Wuchang, the latter event marks the foundation of Wuhan. In AD223, the Yellow Crane Tower was constructed on the Wuchang side of the Yangtze River, cui Hao, a celebrated poet of the Tang dynasty, visited the building in the early 8th century, his poem made it the most celebrated building in southern China. The city has long been renowned as a center for the arts, under the Mongol rulers, Wuchang was promoted to the status of provincial capital, by the dawn of the 18th century, Hankou had become one of Chinas top four most important towns of trade. In the late 19th century, railroads were extended on an axis through the city. Also during this period foreign powers extracted mercantile concessions, with the riverfront of Hankou being divided up into foreign-controlled merchant districts and these districts contained trading firm offices, warehouses, and docking facilities. On October 10,1911, Sun Yat-sens followers launched the Wuchang Uprising, Wuhan was the capital of a leftist Kuomintang government led by Wang Jingwei, in opposition to Chiang Kai-shek during the 1920s. S. As the battle raged on through 1938, Wuhan and the region had become the site of the Battle of Wuhan. After being taken by the Japanese in late 1938, Wuhan became a major Japanese logistics center for operations in southern China, in December 1944, the city was largely destroyed by U. S. firebombing raids conducted by the Fourteenth Air Force. In 1967, civil strife struck the city in the Wuhan Incident as a result of tensions arising out of the Cultural Revolution. The city has been subject to devastating floods, which are now supposed to be controlled by the ambitious Three Gorges Dam, a project which was completed in 2008. In December 1858, James Bruce, 8th Earl of Elgin, High Commissioner to China, and in the spring of 1861, Counselor Harry Parkes and Admiral Herbert were sent to Wuhan to open a trading port
27.
Yinchuan
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Yinchuan is the capital of the Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region, China, and former capital of the Western Xia Empire of the Tanguts. It has an area of 4,467 km2 and a population of 1.99 million. Its built up area is home to 1,290,170 inhabitants spread on three urban districts, the name of the city literally means silver river. Yinchuan is now the permanent site for China-Arab Expo which is a platform for cultural. Yinchuan originally was a xian under the name of Fuping in the 1st century BC, after the fall of the Tang dynasty in 907, it was occupied by the Tangut Xi-Xia dynasty, of which it was the capital. After the destruction of the Xi-Xia dynasty by the Mongols in 1227, the Mongols called the city Iryai. Under the Ming and Qing dynasties, it was a prefecture of Ningxia, in 1928, when the province of Ningxia was formed from part of Gansu, it became the capital city. In 1954, when Ningxia province was abolished, the city was put in Gansu province, genghis Khan died here in 1227, in a battle. Traditionally, Yinchuan was an administrative and commercial center, in the 1950s it had many commercial enterprises, and there were some handicrafts but no modern industry. The city has grown considerably. Extensive coal deposits discovered on the bank of the Yellow River. The immediate plains area, intensively irrigated by a system developed as long ago as the Han, Yinchuan is the chief agricultural market and distribution center for this area and also deals in animal products from the herds tended by nomads in the surrounding grasslands. It is a market for grain and has flour mills, as well as rice-hulling, the wool produced in the surrounding plains supplies a woolen-textile mill. Yinchuan is a center for the Muslim minority peoples, who constitute a third of the population, Yinchuan currently serves as a major trade route between Western cities such as Ürümqi and the East. On July 231993, China Northwest Airlines Flight 2119 crashed into a lake and broke apart while attempting its second takeoff, at least 59 of the 113 persons aboard the craft were killed. Yinchuan lies in the middle of the Yinchuan or Ningxia Plain and it is sheltered from the deserts of Mongolia by the high ranges of the Helan Mountains to its west. The Yellow River runs through Yinchuan from southwest to northeast, the average elevation of Yinchuan is 1,100 meters. The urban center of Yinchuan lies about halfway between the Yellow River and the edge of Helan Mountains, Yinchuan has a cold desert climate with an annual rainfall of 186 mm. Yinchuan has distinct seasons, with dry, cold winters, late springs and short summers
28.
Chongqing
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Chongqing, formerly transliterated as Chungking, is a major city in Southwest China and one of the Five national central cities in China. Administratively, it is one of Chinas four direct-controlled municipalities, the municipality was created on 14 March 1997, succeeding the sub-provincial city administration that was part of Sichuan Province. Chongqings population as of 2015 is just over 30 million with a population of 18.38 million. The official abbreviation of the city, Yu, was approved by the State Council on 18 April 1997 and this abbreviation is derived from the old name of a part of the Jialing River that runs through Chongqing and feeds into the Yangtze River. Chongqing was also a Sichuan province municipality during the Republic of China administration, Chongqing has a significant history and culture and serves as the economic centre of the upstream Yangtze basin. It is a manufacturing centre and transportation hub, a July 2012 report by the Economist Intelligence Unit described it as one of Chinas 13 emerging megacities. Tradition associates Chongqing with the State of Ba, the Ba people supposedly established Chongqing during the Spring and Autumn period after moving from their first capital Yicheng in Hubei under pressure from Chu. This new capital was first named Jiangzhou, in 316 BC, however, the state of Ba was conquered by the State of Qin. Jiangzhou subsequently remained under Qin Shi Huangs rule during the Qin Dynasty, the successor of the Qin State, and under the control of Han Dynasty emperors. Jiangzhou was subsequently renamed during the Southern and Northern Dynasties to Chu Prefecture, then in 581 AD to Yu Prefecture, the name Yu however survives to this day as an abbreviation for Chongqing, and the city centre where the old town stood is also called Yuzhong. It received its current name in 1189, after Prince Zhao Dun of the Southern Song Dynasty described his crowning as king, in his honour, Yu Prefecture was therefore renamed Chongqing subprefecture marking the occasion of his enthronement. In 1362, Ming Yuzhen, a peasant rebelling leader, established the Daxia Kingdom at Chongqing for a short time, in 1621, another short-lived kingdom of Daliang was established by She Chongming with Chongqing as its capital. The Manchus later conquered the province, and during the Qing Dynasty, immigration to Chongqing, in 1890, the British Consulate General was opened in Chongqing. The following year, the city became the first inland commerce port open to foreigners, the French, German, US and Japanese consulates were opened in Chongqing in 1896–1904. During the Second Sino-Japanese War, it was Generalissimo Chiang Kai-sheks provisional capital, the city was also visited by Lord Louis Mountbatten, the Supreme Commander of SEAC which was itself headquartered in Ceylon, modern day Sri Lanka. Chiang Kai Shek as Supreme Commander in China worked closely with Stilwell, the Japanese Air Force heavily bombed it. Due to its mountainous environment, many people were saved from the bombing, due to the bravery, contributions and sacrifices made by the local people during World War II, Chongqing became known as the City of Heroes. Many factories and universities were relocated from eastern China to Chongqing during the war, in late November 1949 the Nationalist KMT government fled the city
29.
Peng Zhen
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Peng Zhen was a leading member of the Communist Party of China. He was rehabilitated under Deng Xiaoping in 1982 along with other accused officials. Born in Houma, Shanxi province, Peng was originally named Fu Maogong and he joined the Chinese Communist Party in 1923 as a founding member of the Shanxi Province CP. Arrested in 1929, he continued underground political activities while imprisoned and he was released from prison in 1935 and began organizing a resistance movement against the invading Japanese forces. Around the same time, he was appointed the Organization Department Director of the North Bureau of CPC and he also served on a number of positions as vice-president of the Central Party School and director of the CPC Policy Research Office. In 1945 he served in the research committee and the organizing committee of the Communist Partys 7th National Congress. In September 1945 Peng was sent by Mao Zedong to take up leadership of the Communists in Northeast China. He was accompanied by Lin Biao who was to assist Peng with directing military operations against the Nationalists, Peng decided that the Communists could hold the 3 big cities of the Northeast, Shenyang, Changchun and Harbin. When the Nationalists under the command of Du Yuming attacked in November 1945, Peng was removed as Communist leader in the northeast after further failure by Lin Biaos forces in March 1946 led to the Communists retreat back to Harbin. Peng was a member of the CPC Central Committee starting from 1944 as well as member of the Secretariat of the CPC Central Committee and he also held the positions of First Secretary of the Beijing Municipal Committee, and Mayor of Beijing. He was a member of the Politburo from 1956 to 1966 and he was accused of being an associate to Wu Hans counter-revolutionary clique and deposed at a May 1966 conference in what became the opening act of the Cultural Revolution. Lu Dingyi, Luo Ruiqing and Yang Shangkun were also deposed, Peng survived the Cultural Revolution, and was eventually rehabilitated under Deng Xiaoping. He subsequently became Secretary of the Central Political and Legal Affairs Commission, beginning in 1983, as Chairman of the Standing Committee of the Sixth National Peoples Congress, he sought to increase the NPCs power. Peng retired from his political positions in 1988. Peng Zhen died on April 26,1997, and was eulogized with high honours by the highest organs of the party and he was considered one of the Eight Immortals of the Communist Party of China. Original text based on marxists. org article The Peng Zhen Reference Archive Pitman B
30.
March of the Volunteers
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The March of the Volunteers, is the national anthem of the Peoples Republic of China, including its special administrative regions of Hong Kong and Macau. Unlike most previous Chinese anthems, it is entirely in the vernacular. Its lyrics were composed as a poem by the poet and playwright. It was adopted as the PRCs provisional anthem in 1949 in place of the Republican Three Principles of the People and the Communist Internationale. On 9 May, Gu and Yuan recorded it in more standard Mandarin for Pathé Orients Shanghai branch ahead of the movies release, so that it served as a form of advertising for the film. Although Tian Han was imprisoned for two years, Nie Er fled toward Russia only to die en route in Japan, the singing campaign continued to expand, particularly after the December 1936 Xian Incident reduced Nationalist pressure against leftist movements. The Pathé recording of the march appeared prominently in Joris Ivenss 1939 The 400 Million, the New York Times published the songs sheet music on 24 December, along with an analysis by a Chinese correspondent in Chongqing. In exile in New York City in 1940, Liu Liangmo taught it to Paul Robeson, Robeson began performing the song in Chinese at a large concert in New York Citys Lewisohn Stadium. Reportedly in communication with the original lyricist Tian Han, the pair translated it into English and its 3-disc album included a booklet whose preface was written by Soong Ching-ling, widow of Sun Yat-sen, and its initial proceeds were donated to the Chinese resistance. The March of the Volunteers was used as the Chinese national anthem for the first time at the World Peace Conference in April 1949, originally intended for Paris, French authorities refused so many visas for its delegates that a parallel conference was held in Prague, Czechoslovakia. At the time, Beijing had recently come under the control of the Chinese Communists in the Chinese Civil War, the song was personally performed by Paul Robeson. In June, a committee was set up by the Communist Party of China to decide on a national anthem for the soon-to-be declared Peoples Republic of China. By the end of August, the committee had received 632 entries totaling 694 different sets of scores, the March of the Volunteers was suggested by the painter Xu Beihong and supported by Zhou Enlai. Opposition to its use centered on the line, as The Chinese people face their greatest peril suggested that China continued to face difficulties. Zhou replied, We still have imperialist enemies in front of us, the more we progress in development, the more the imperialists will hate us, seek to undermine us, attack us. Can you say that we wont be in peril and his view was supported by Mao Zedong and, on 27 September 1949, the song became the provisional national anthem, just days before the founding of the Peoples Republic. Although the song had been popular among Nationalists during the war against Japan, as a result, there was a time when The East Is Red served as the PRCs unofficial anthem. Following the 9th National Congress, The March of the Volunteers began to be played again from the 20th National Day Parade in 1969
31.
Young Pioneers of China
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The Young Pioneers of China is a mass youth organization for children aged six to fourteen in the Peoples Republic of China. The Young Pioneers of China is run by the Communist Youth League, the Young Pioneers of China is similar to Pioneer Movements that exist or existed in many Communist countries around the world. The Youth and Children of China Movement was created on October 13,1949 by the Communist Party of China, between its own founding in 1921 and the founding of the Peoples Republic in 1949, the Chinese Communist Party ran various other youth movements in communist-held areas. During the Cultural Revolution, the Young Pioneers Movement was temporarily dismantled and it was replaced by the Little Red Guards, who were the younger counterparts of the Red Guards, the implementers of the Cultural Revolution. The Young Pioneers Movement was restarted in October 1978, the transfer of sovereignty of Hong Kong and Macau in 1997 and 1999 respectively has not seen the expansion of Communist Party organizations to those areas, including the Young Pioneers. Most elementary school students are Young Pioneers by the time they graduate from grade school, most of the schools require students of the right age to become Young Pioneers. There were an estimated 130 million Young Pioneers in China, as of 2002, adult leaders are chosen from either the Communist Youth League or from local teaching staff. The Constitution was officially passed on June 1,1954, on international Childrens Day and it has since been amended many times. The full text is available on Wikisource, the Pioneer Battalion flag is 90 x 120 cm, while the flag of each Company is 60 x 80 cm, with an isosceles triangle removed from the right side. The removed triangle corresponds to the red worn by Young Pioneers. The emblem consists of the star, the torch, and a banner reading The Young Pioneers of China, the red scarf is the only uniform item. Young Pioneers are often referred to simply as Red Scarves, the investiture ceremony often consists of new members having their scarves tied for them by existing members, Children wearing red scarves are a ubiquitous sight in China. The red scarf is worn around the neck and tied. Some local groups also come up with other uniform items, the Young Pioneers Constitution explains that the scarf corresponds to the missing triangle on the Pioneer Company flag. The Constitution also explains that the red of the scarf comes from the blood sacrificed by martyrs of the Revolution, and that all members should therefore wear the scarf with reverence. The Young Pioneers Salute consists of bending the arm and raising the right hand directly above the head, the palm flat and facing downwards. It symbolizes that the interests of the People supersede all, translation, Be prepared, to struggle for the cause of Communism. To which the reply is, Chinese, 时刻准备着, the Young Pioneers song is We are the heirs of communism
32.
Monument to the People's Heroes
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It is located in the southern part of Tiananmen Square in Beijing, to the north of Mausoleum of Mao Zedong. The architect of the monument was Liang Sicheng, with elements designed by his wife. The civil engineer, Chen Zhide was also instrumental in realising the final product, the monument has also served as the centre of large-scale mourning activities that later developed into protest and unrest, such as the deaths of Premier Zhou Enlai and Hu Yaobang. The monument has an height of 37.94 metres. It weighs over 10,000 tonnes and contains about 17,000 pieces of marble and granite from Qingdao, Shandong Province, and the nearby Fangshan District. Eternal glory to the heroes of the people who laid down their lives in the war of liberation. The conduct of activities at the Monument to the Peoples Heroes is regulated by the Major Events Administration Office of the Tiananmen Area Administrative Committee. Strict rules apply to conduct within the vicinity of the monument, since the protests of 1989, the government has prohibited climbing the monument beyond the protective barrier without prior approval, as well as photography and filming. Today, those intending to lay wreaths at the monument must apply five days in advance, certain domestic groups, such as police and military units, would also sometimes lay wreaths at the monument. History of Beijing Satellite photo of the Monument
33.
People's Socialist Republic of Albania
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Albania, officially the Peoples Socialist Republic of Albania, was a socialist state that ruled Albania from 1946 to its fall in 1992. From 1946 to 1976 it was known as the Peoples Republic of Albania, travel and visa restrictions made Albania one of the most difficult countries to visit or to travel from. In 1967, it declared itself the worlds first atheist state and it was the only Warsaw Pact member to formally withdraw from the alliance before 1990, an action occasioned by the Warsaw Pact invasion of Czechoslovakia in 1968. The Peoples Socialist Republic was officially dissolved on 28 November 1998 upon the adoption of the new Constitution of Albania, on 29 November 1944, Albania was liberated by the National Liberation Movement. The Anti-Fascist National Liberation Council, formed in May, became the provisional government. The government, like the LNC, was dominated by the two-year-old Communist Party of Albania, King Zog I was barred from ever returning to Albania, though the country nominally remained a monarchy. From the start, the LNC government was an undisguised Communist regime, in the other countries in what became the Soviet bloc, the Communists were at least nominally part of coalition governments for a few years before taking complete control. The internal affairs minister, Koçi Xoxe, an erstwhile pro-Yugoslavia tinsmith, presided over the trial of many non-communist politicians condemned as enemies of the people and those spared were imprisoned for years in work camps and jails and later settled on state farms built on reclaimed marshlands. In December 1945, Albanians elected a new Peoples Assembly, official ballot tallies showed that 92% of the electorate voted and that 93% of the voters chose the Democratic Front ticket. The assembly convened in January 1946 and its first act was to formally abolish the monarchy and to declare Albania a peoples republic. However, as mentioned above, the country had been a Communist state for just over two years, after months of angry debate, the assembly adopted a constitution that mirrored the Yugoslav and Soviet constitutions. Then in the spring, the members chose a new government. Hoxha became prime minister, foreign minister, defense minister, Xoxe remained both internal affairs minister and the partys organizational secretary. Hoxha remained in control despite the fact that he had once advocated restoring relations with Italy, the communists also undertook economic measures to expand their power. In December 1944, the government adopted laws allowing the state to regulate foreign and domestic trade, commercial enterprises. The laws sanctioned confiscation of property belonging to political exiles and enemies of the people, in August 1945, the provisional government adopted the first sweeping agricultural reforms in Albanias history. The countrys 100 largest landowners, who controlled close to a third of Albanias arable land, had frustrated all agricultural reform proposals before the war, the communists reforms were aimed at squeezing large landowners out of business, winning peasant support, and increasing farm output to avert famine. The government annulled outstanding agricultural debts, granted peasants access to water for irrigation
34.
People's Republic of Bulgaria
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The Peoples Republic of Bulgaria was the official name of the Bulgarian socialist republic. The Peoples Republic of Bulgaria existed from 1946 to 1990, when the Bulgarian Communist Party ruled together with its coalition partner, Bulgaria was part of Comecon, a member of the Warsaw Pact and closely allied with the Soviet Union during the Cold War. The countrys relatively high productivity levels and high scores on social development rankings made it a model for other socialist countries administrative policies. In 1989, after a few years of influence, political reforms were initiated and Todor Zhivkov. In 1990, under the new leadership of Georgi Parvanov, the BCP changed its name to the Bulgarian Socialist Party and adopted a centre-left political ideology in place of Marxism-Leninism. Following the BSP victory in the 1990 election, which was the first openly contested multi-party election since 1931, geographically, the Peoples Republic of Bulgaria bordered the Black Sea to the east, Romania to the north, Yugoslavia to the west and Greece and Turkey to the south. In 1942 the Fatherland Front was formed and this constituted a mixture of Communists, Socialists and Liberals. The Fatherland Front took office in Sofia following a coup détat, setting up a coalition under the former ruler Kimon Georgiev and including the Social Democrats. Under the terms of the settlement, Bulgaria was allowed to keep Southern Dobruja. 150,000 Bulgarians were expelled from Greek Thrace, the Communists deliberately took a minor role in the new government at first, but the Soviet representatives were the real power in the country. A Communist-controlled Peoples Militia was set up, which harassed and intimidated non-Communist parties, by June, Kirill and the other Regents, twenty-two former ministers, and many others had been executed. In September 1946, the monarchy was abolished by plebiscite, the Communists now openly took power, with Vasil Kolarov becoming President and Dimitrov becoming Prime Minister. Free elections promised for 1946 were blatantly rigged and were boycotted by the opposition, the Agrarians refused to co-operate with the new regime, and in June 1947 their leader Nikola Petkov was arrested. Despite strong international protests he was executed in September and this marked the final establishment of a Communist regime in Bulgaria. In 1944, with the oncoming of the Red Army through Romania, the new government began to severely constrain Nazi collaborators. As the war came to a halt, the government expanded its campaign of revolution to go after economic elites in banking. He made a truculent speech that made it apparent the party had no intentions of working with groups who were against their revolution. Elections held a few weeks later resulted in a majority for the Fatherland Front
35.
Czechoslovak Socialist Republic
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It has been regarded as a satellite state of the Soviet Union. Several other state symbols were changed in 1960, the official name of the country was the Czechoslovak Socialist Republic. Conventional wisdom suggested that it would be known as simply the Czechoslovak Republic—its official name from 1920 to 1938, the traditional etymology derives it from an eponymous leader Čech who led the tribe into Bohemia. Modern theories consider it a derivative, e. g. from četa. Meanwhile, the name Slovak was taken from the Slavic Slavs as the origin of the word Slav itself remains uncertain, during the states existence, it was simply referred to Czechoslovakia or sometimes the CSSR and CSR in short. In April 1945, the Third Republic was formed, led by a National Front of six parties, the Communists were the big winners in the 1946 elections, taking a total of 114 seats. Not only was this the time a Communist party finished first in a free election anywhere in Europe during the Cold War era. Klement Gottwald, leader of the KSČ, became Prime Minister of Czechoslovakia, hope in Moscow was waning for a communist victory in the 1948 elections following a May 1947 Kremlin report concluded that reactionary elements praising western democracy had strengthened. Thereafter, Soviet Ambassador Valerian Zorin arranged the Czechoslovak coup détat, followed by the occupation of non-Communist ministers ministries, on 25 February 1948, Beneš, fearful of civil war and Soviet intervention, capitulated and appointed a Communist-dominated government who was sworn in two days later. Although members of the other National Front parties still figured, this was, for all intents and purposes. Foreign Minister Jan Masaryk, the prominent minister still left who wasnt either a Communist or fellow traveler, was found dead two weeks later. On 30 May, a single list of candidates from the National Front—now an organization dominated by the Communists—was elected to the National Assembly, after passage of the Ninth-of-May Constitution on 9 June 1948, the country became a Peoples Republic until 1960. Although it was not a completely Communist document, it was enough to the Soviet model that Beneš refused to sign it. Hed resigned a week before it was ratified, and died in September. The Ninth-of-May Constitution confirmed that the KSČ possessed absolute power, as other Communist parties had in the Eastern Bloc, on 11 July 1960, the 1960 Constitution of Czechoslovakia was promulgated, changing the name of the country from the Czechoslovak Republic to the Czechoslovak Socialist Republic. With the exception of the Prague Spring in the late 1960s, Czechoslovakia was characterized by the absence of democracy, in the religious sphere, atheism was officially promoted and taught. In 1969, the became a federation of the Czech Socialist Republic. Under the federation, social and economic inequities between the Czech and Slovak halves of the state were largely eliminated, a number of ministries, such as Education, were formally transferred to the two republics
36.
East Germany
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East Germany, formally the German Democratic Republic, was an Eastern Bloc state during the Cold War period. The Soviet zone surrounded West Berlin, but did not include it, as a result, the German Democratic Republic was established in the Soviet Zone, while the Federal Republic was established in the three western zones. East Germany, which lies culturally in Central Germany, was a state of the Soviet Union. Soviet occupation authorities began transferring administrative responsibility to German communist leaders in 1948, Soviet forces, however, remained in the country throughout the Cold War. Until 1989, the GDR was governed by the Socialist Unity Party, though other parties participated in its alliance organisation. The economy was centrally planned, and increasingly state-owned, prices of basic goods and services were set by central government planners, rather than rising and falling through supply and demand. Although the GDR had to pay war reparations to the USSR. Nonetheless it did not match the growth of West Germany. Emigration to the West was a significant problem—as many of the emigrants were well-educated young people, the government fortified its western borders and, in 1961, built the Berlin Wall. Many people attempting to flee were killed by guards or booby traps. In 1989, numerous social and political forces in the GDR and abroad led to the fall of the Berlin Wall, the following year open elections were held, and international negotiations led to the signing of the Final Settlement treaty on the status and borders of Germany. The GDR was dissolved and Germany was unified on 3 October 1990, internally, the GDR also bordered the Soviet sector of Allied-occupied Berlin known as East Berlin which was also administered as the states de facto capital. It also bordered the three sectors occupied by the United States, United Kingdom and France known collectively as West Berlin. The three sectors occupied by the Western nations were sealed off from the rest of the GDR by the Berlin Wall from its construction in 1961 until it was brought down in 1989, the official name was Deutsche Demokratische Republik, usually abbreviated to DDR. West Germans, the media and statesmen purposely avoided the official name and its abbreviation, instead using terms like Ostzone, Sowjetische Besatzungszone. The centre of power in East Berlin was referred to as Pankow. Over time, however, the abbreviation DDR was also used colloquially by West Germans. However, this use was not always consistent, for example, before World War II, Ostdeutschland was used to describe all the territories east of the Elbe, as reflected in the works of sociologist Max Weber and political theorist Carl Schmitt
37.
Hungarian People's Republic
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The Hungarian Peoples Republic was a socialist state that administered Hungary from 20 August 1949 until 23 October 1989. It was governed by the Socialist Workers Party, which was under the influence of the Soviet Union, the state remained in existence until 1989 when opposition forces consolidated in forcing upon the government to abandon communism. The state considered itself the heir to the Hungarian Soviet Republic and it was designated a peoples democratic republic by the Soviet Union in the 1940s. Geographically, it bordered Romania and the Soviet Union to the east, Yugoslavia to the south-west, Czechoslovakia to the north, following the occupation of Hungary by the Red Army, Soviet military occupation ensued. After seizing most material assets from German hands, the Soviets tried, Communist Interior Minister László Rajk established the ÁVH secret police, in an effort to suppress political opposition through intimidation, false accusations, imprisonment and torture. In early 1947, the Soviet Union pressed the leader of the Hungarian Communists, Mátyás Rákosi, Rákosi complied by pressuring the other parties to push out those members not willing to do the Communists bidding, ostensibly because they were fascists. Later on, after the Communists won full power, he referred to this practice as salami tactics, Prime Minister Ferenc Nagy was forced to resign as prime minister in favour of a more pliant Smallholder, Lajos Dinnyés. In the elections held that year, the Communists became the largest party, the coalition was retained with Dinnyés as prime minister. However, by this time most of the parties more courageous members had been pushed out. Having emasculated most of the parties, the Communists spent the next year. This culminated in the half of 1948. In June, the Communists forced the Social Democrats to merge them to form the Hungarian Working Peoples Party. Rákosi then forced Tildy to turn over the presidency to Social Democrat-turned-Communist Árpád Szakasits, in December, Dinnyés was replaced by the leader of the Smallholders left wing, the openly pro-Communist István Dobi. The process was more or less completed with the elections of May 1949, voters were presented with a single list of all parties, running on a common programme. On August 18, the newly elected National Assembly passed a new constitution—a near-carbon copy of the Soviet Constitution, when it was officially promulgated on August 20, the country was renamed the Peoples Republic of Hungary. Rajk called it a dictatorship of the proletariat without the Soviet form called a peoples democracy, Hungary stayed that way until the late 1980s, when turmoil broke out across the Eastern Bloc, culminating with the fall of the Berlin Wall and the Soviet Unions dissolution. Mátyás Rákosi, the new leader of Hungary, demanded complete obedience from fellow members of the Hungarian Working Peoples Party, Rákosis main rival for power was László Rajk, who was then Hungarys Foreign Secretary. Rajk was arrested and Stalins NKVD emissary coordinated with Hungarian General Secretary Rákosi, at the September 1949 trial, Rajk made a forced confession, claiming that he had been an agent of Miklós Horthy, Leon Trotsky, Josip Broz Tito and Western imperialism
38.
North Korea
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North Korea, officially the Democratic Peoples Republic of Korea, is a country in East Asia, constituting the northern part of the Korean Peninsula. Pyongyang is both the capital as well as its largest city. To the north and northwest the country is bordered by China and by Russia along the Amnok, the country is bordered to the south by South Korea, with the heavily fortified Korean Demilitarized Zone separating the two. Negotiations on reunification failed, and in 1948 two separate governments were formed, the communist Democratic Peoples Republic of Korea in the north, an invasion initiated by North Korea led to the Korean War. The Korean Armistice Agreement brought about a ceasefire, and no peace treaty was ever signed. North Korea officially describes itself as a self-reliant socialist state and formally holds elections, critics regard it as a totalitarian dictatorship. Various outlets have called it Stalinist, particularly noting the elaborate cult of personality around Kim Il-sung, International organizations have assessed human rights violations in North Korea as belonging to a category of their own, with no parallel in the contemporary world. Over time, North Korea has gradually distanced itself from the world communist movement, Juche, an ideology of national self-reliance, was introduced into the constitution as a creative application of Marxism–Leninism in 1972. The means of production are owned by the state through state-run enterprises, most services such as healthcare, education, housing and food production are subsidized or state-funded. From 1994 to 1998, North Korea suffered from a famine that resulted in the deaths of between 0.24 and 3.5 million people, and the continues to struggle with food production. North Korea follows Songun, or military-first policy and it is the country with the highest number of military and paramilitary personnel, with a total of 9,495,000 active, reserve, and paramilitary personnel. Its active duty army of 1.21 million is the fourth largest in the world, after China, North Korea is an atheist state with no official religion and where public religion is discouraged. The name Korea derives from the name Goryeo, the name Goryeo itself was first used by the ancient kingdom of Goguryeo in the 5th century as a shortened form of its name. The 10th-century kingdom of Goryeo succeeded Goguryeo, and thus inherited its name, the modern spelling of Korea first appeared in the late 17th century in the travel writings of the Dutch East India Companys Hendrick Hamel. After the division of the country into North and South Korea, the two sides used different terms to refer to Korea, Chosun or Joseon in North Korea, in 1948, North Korea adopted Democratic Peoples Republic of Korea as its new legal name. After the First Sino-Japanese War and the Russo-Japanese War, Korea was occupied by Japan, Japan tried to suppress Korean traditions and culture and ran the economy primarily for its own benefit. Korean resistance groups known as Dongnipgun operated along the Sino-Korean border, some of them took part in allied action in China and parts of South East Asia. One of the leaders was the communist Kim Il-sung, who later became the leader of North Korea
39.
Mongolian People's Republic
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Mongolia, officially the Mongolian Peoples Republic is the period of Mongolian history which existed between 1924 and 1992 as a landlocked unitary sovereign socialist state in East Asia. It was ruled by the Mongolian Peoples Revolutionary Party and maintained links with the Soviet Union throughout its history. Geographically, it was bordered by China to its south, the Soviet Union to its north, from 1691 to 1911, Outer Mongolia was ruled by the Manchu Qing dynasty. In the first decade of the 20th century, the Qing government began implementing the so-called New Policies, upset by the prospect of the colonization akin to the developments in Inner Mongolia during the 19th century, the Mongolian aristocracy turned to the Russian Empire for support. In August 1911, a Mongol delegation went to Saint Petersburg, when they returned, the Xinhai Revolution that eventually led to the collapse of the Qing dynasty had begun. In the Khiagt agreement of 1915, China, Russia and Mongolia agreed on Mongolias status as autonomy under Chinese suzerainty, according to an Associated Press dispatch, some Mongol chieftains signed a petition asking China to retake administration of Mongolia and end Outer Mongolias autonomy. The Tusiyetu Khan Aimaks Prince Darchin Chin Wang was a supporter of Chinese rule while his younger brother Tsewang was a supporter of Ungern-Sternberg. It was under Chinese occupation that the Mongolian Peoples Party was founded and once again looked to the north, this time to Soviet Russia, for help. In the meantime, White Russian troops led by Roman Ungern von Sternberg had occupied Khuree in early March 1921, the Peoples Party founded a new government, but kept the Bogd Khaan as nominal head of state. In the following years through some violent power struggles, Soviet influence got ever stronger, and after the Bogd Khaans death, the government took control of the Bogda Khans seal after his death according to the 26 November 1924 Constitution of the Mongolian Peoples Republic. It was proposed that Zhang Zuolins domain take Outer Mongolia under its administration by the Bogda Khan, between 1925 and 1928, the new regime became established. At the time, Mongolia was severely underdeveloped, industry was nonexistent and all wealth was controlled by the nobility and religious establishments. The population numbered less than a people and was shrinking due to nearly half of all Mongolian males living in monasteries. In 1928, Soviet leader Joseph Stalin and comintern ordered the building of socialism, in 1934, Peljidiin Genden visited Moscow and angrily accused Stalin of Red imperialism. He subsequently died in the Great Purge after being tricked into taking a holiday on the Black Sea, after 1932, the implementation of a command economy was scaled back. In 1936, Stalin then ordered the liquidation of the countrys Buddhist institutions, meanwhile, Japanese incursions in Manchuria were a casus belli for Moscow to station troops in Mongolia. At the same time, the Great Purge spilled into Mongolia, among those killed included Genden, Anandyn Amar, Demid, and Losol. After the removal of Genden from power, Marshal Khorloogiin Choibalsan, the purges led to the almost complete eradication of Tibetan Buddhism in the country, and cost an estimated 30, 000–35,000 lives, equivalent to about five percent of Mongolias population
40.
Polish People's Republic
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The Polish Peoples Republic covers the history of Poland under Communist control between 1952 and 1990. The name was defined by the Constitution of 1952 which was based on the 1936 Soviet Constitution, between 1947 and 1952, the name of the Polish state was the Republic of Poland, in accordance with the temporary Constitution of 1947. The Soviet Union had much influence over internal and external affairs, and Red Army forces were stationed in Poland. In 1945, Soviet generals and advisors formed 80% of the cadre of the Polish Armed Forces. The Polish United Workers Party became the dominant political party, officially making the country a Communist state, at the Yalta Conference in February 1945, Stalin was able to present his western allies, Franklin Roosevelt and Winston Churchill, with a fait accompli in Poland. His armed forces were in occupation of the country, and his agents, the USSR was in the process of incorporating the lands in eastern Poland which it had occupied between 1939 and 1941. In compensation, the USSR awarded Poland German territories in Pomerania, Silesia and these awards were confirmed at the Tripartite Conference of Berlin, otherwise known as the Potsdam Conference in August 1945 after the end of the war in Europe. Stalin was determined that Polands new government would become his tool towards making Poland a Soviet puppet state controlled by the communists. He had severed relations with the Polish government-in-exile in London in 1943, the communists held a majority of key posts in this new government, and with Soviet support they soon gained almost total control of the country, rigging all elections. This important victory would be their last, however, as the communists, tightening their grip on power, many of their opponents decided to leave the country, and others were put on staged trials and sentenced to many years of imprisonment or execution. In June 1946 the Three Times Yes referendum was held on a number of issues—abolition of the Senate of Poland, land reform, the communist-controlled Interior Ministry issued results showing that all three questions passed overwhelmingly. Years later, however, evidence was uncovered showing that the referendum had been tainted by massive fraud, Gomułka then took advantage of a split in the Polish Socialist Party. One faction, which included Prime Minister Edward Osóbka-Morawski, wanted to join forces with the Peasant Party, another faction, led by Józef Cyrankiewicz, argued that the Socialists should support the Communists in carrying through a socialist program, while opposing the imposition of one-party rule. Pre-war political hostilities continued to influence events, and Mikołajczyk would not agree to form a front with the Socialists. The Communists played on these divisions by dismissing Osóbka-Morawski and making Cyrankiewicz Prime Minister, between the referendum and the January 1947 general elections, the opposition was subjected to persecution. Only the candidates of the pro-government Democratic Bloc were allowed to campaign completely unmolested, meanwhile, several opposition candidates were prevented from campaigning at all. Mikołajczyks Polish Peoples Party in particular suffered persecution, it had opposed the abolition of the Senate as a test of strength against the government, although it supported the other two questions, the Communist-dominated government branded the PSL traitors. This massive oppression was overseen by Gomułka and the provisional president, the official results of the election showed the Democratic Bloc with 80.1 percent of the vote
41.
Socialist Republic of Romania
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The Socialist Republic of Romania refers to Romania under Marxist-Leninist one-party Communist rule that existed officially from 1947 to 1989. From 1947 to 1965, the state was known as the Romanian Peoples Republic, the country was a Soviet-aligned Eastern Bloc state with a dominant role for the Romanian Communist Party enshrined in its constitutions. As World War II ended, Romania, a former Axis member, was occupied by the Soviet Union, gradually, more members of the Communist Party and communist-aligned parties gained control of the administration and pre-war political leaders were steadily eliminated from political life. In December 1947, King Michael was induced to abdicate and the Peoples Republic of Romania was declared, at first, Romanias scarce post-war resources were drained by the SovRoms, new tax-exempt Soviet-Romanian companies that allowed the Soviet Union to control Romanias major sources of income. Another drain was the war reparations paid to the Soviet Union, in the 1950s, however, Romanias communist government began to assert more independence, inducing, for example, the withdrawal of all Soviet troops from Romania by 1958. In the 1960s and 1970s, Nicolae Ceaușescu became General Secretary of the Communist Party, Chairman of the State Council, Ceaușescus denunciation of the 1968 Soviet invasion of Czechoslovakia and a brief relaxation in internal repression helped give him a positive image both at home and in the West. However, rapid growth fueled by foreign credits gradually gave way to an austerity. A large number of people were executed or died in custody during communist Romanias existence, while judicial executions between 1945 and 1964 numbered 137, deaths in custody are estimated in the tens or hundreds of thousands. Many more were imprisoned for political, economical or other reasons and suffered abuse, geographically, it bordered the Black Sea to the east, the Soviet Union to the north and east, Hungary to the north, Yugoslavia to the west and Bulgaria to the south. Romanian forces fought under Soviet command, driving through Northern Transylvania into Hungary proper and this changed in March 1945, when Dr. Petru Groza of the Ploughmens Front, a party closely associated with the Communists, became prime minister. His government was broad-based on paper, including members of most major parties except the Iron Guard. However, the Communists held the key ministries, and most of the ministers nominally representing non-Communist parties were, like Groza himself, despite the Kings disapproval, the first Groza government brought land reform and womens suffrage. However, it brought the beginnings of Soviet domination of Romania. In the elections of 19 November 1946, the Communist-led Bloc of Democratic Parties claimed 84% of the votes, a show trial of their leadership was then arranged, and they were put in jail. Other parties were forced to merge with the Communists, in 1946 and 1947, hundreds of participants in the pro-Axis government were executed as war criminals, primarily for their involvement in the Holocaust and for attacking the Soviet Union. Antonescu himself was executed 1 June 1946, by 1947, Romania remained the only monarchy in the Eastern Bloc. On 30 December that year, Michael was at his palace in Sinaia when Groza and they presented him with a pretyped instrument of abdication and demanded that he sign it. With pro-Communist troops surrounding his palace and his lines cut
42.
Soviet Union
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The Soviet Union, officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics was a socialist state in Eurasia that existed from 1922 to 1991. It was nominally a union of national republics, but its government. The Soviet Union had its roots in the October Revolution of 1917 and this established the Russian Socialist Federative Soviet Republic and started the Russian Civil War between the revolutionary Reds and the counter-revolutionary Whites. In 1922, the communists were victorious, forming the Soviet Union with the unification of the Russian, Transcaucasian, Ukrainian, following Lenins death in 1924, a collective leadership and a brief power struggle, Joseph Stalin came to power in the mid-1920s. Stalin suppressed all opposition to his rule, committed the state ideology to Marxism–Leninism. As a result, the country underwent a period of rapid industrialization and collectivization which laid the foundation for its victory in World War II and postwar dominance of Eastern Europe. Shortly before World War II, Stalin signed the Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact agreeing to non-aggression with Nazi Germany, in June 1941, the Germans invaded the Soviet Union, opening the largest and bloodiest theater of war in history. Soviet war casualties accounted for the highest proportion of the conflict in the effort of acquiring the upper hand over Axis forces at battles such as Stalingrad. Soviet forces eventually captured Berlin in 1945, the territory overtaken by the Red Army became satellite states of the Eastern Bloc. The Cold War emerged by 1947 as the Soviet bloc confronted the Western states that united in the North Atlantic Treaty Organization in 1949. Following Stalins death in 1953, a period of political and economic liberalization, known as de-Stalinization and Khrushchevs Thaw, the country developed rapidly, as millions of peasants were moved into industrialized cities. The USSR took a lead in the Space Race with Sputnik 1, the first ever satellite, and Vostok 1. In the 1970s, there was a brief détente of relations with the United States, the war drained economic resources and was matched by an escalation of American military aid to Mujahideen fighters. In the mid-1980s, the last Soviet leader, Mikhail Gorbachev, sought to reform and liberalize the economy through his policies of glasnost. The goal was to preserve the Communist Party while reversing the economic stagnation, the Cold War ended during his tenure, and in 1989 Soviet satellite countries in Eastern Europe overthrew their respective communist regimes. This led to the rise of strong nationalist and separatist movements inside the USSR as well, in August 1991, a coup détat was attempted by Communist Party hardliners. It failed, with Russian President Boris Yeltsin playing a role in facing down the coup. On 25 December 1991, Gorbachev resigned and the twelve constituent republics emerged from the dissolution of the Soviet Union as independent post-Soviet states
43.
North Vietnam
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North Vietnam, officially the Democratic Republic of Vietnam, was a state in Southeast Asia which existed from 1945 to 1976. Vietnamese revolutionary leader Ho Chi Minh declared independence from France on 2 September 1945, France reasserted its colonial dominance and a war ensued between France and the Viet Minh, led by Ho. The Viet Minh was a coalition of nationalist groups, mostly led by communists, in February 1951, the communists announced the creation of the Lao Động Party, gradually marginalizing non-communists in the Viet Minh. Between 1946 and 1954, the Viet Minh captured and controlled most of the areas of Vietnam. In 1954, after the French were defeated, the negotiation of the Geneva Accords ended the war between France and the Viet Minh and granted Vietnam independence. The Geneva Accords divided the country provisionally into northern and southern zones, the northern zone was commonly called North Vietnam and the southern zone South Vietnam, or, formally, the Republic of Vietnam. Supervision of the implementation of the Geneva Accords was the responsibility of an International Commission consisting of India, Canada, and Poland. In July 1955, the Prime Minister of the Republic of Vietnam, Ngo Dinh Diem and he said that South Vietnam had not signed the Geneva accords and was not bound by it. With the failure to reunify Vietnam by elections, the Democratic Republic of Vietnam attempted to unify the country by force in the Vietnam War, North Vietnam also supported indigenous communist rebels in Cambodia and Laos against their respective U. S, -backed governments. The war ended when Democratic Republic of Vietnam forces and the Viet Cong defeated the Republic of Vietnam, Viet Minh leader Hồ Chí Minh became head of the government. U. S. President Franklin Roosevelt had spoken against French rule in Indochina, the Hanoi government of Ho Chi Minh claimed dominion over all of Vietnam, but during this time South Vietnam was in profound political disorder. The successive collapse of French, then Japanese power, followed by the dissension among the factions in Saigon had been accompanied by widespread violence in the countryside. On September 12,1945, the first British troops arrived in Saigon, on September 23,28 days after the people of Saigon seized political power, French troops occupied the police stations, the post office, and other public buildings. In June 1946, Chinese Nationalist troops evacuated Hanoi, and on the 15th of June, after the departure of the British in 1946, the French controlled a part of Cochinchina, South Central Coast, Central Highlands since the end Southern Resistance War. In January 1946, the Viet Minh held an election to establish a National Assembly, when France declared Cochinchina, the southern third of Vietnam, a separate state as the Autonomous Republic of Cochinchina in June 1946, Vietnamese nationalists reacted with fury. In November, the National Assembly adopted the first Constitution of the Republic, the French reoccupied Hanoi and the First Indochina War followed. Following the Chinese Communist Revolution, Chinese communist forces arrived on the border in 1949, Chinese aid revived the fortunes of the Viet Minh and transformed it from a guerrilla militia into a standing army. The outbreak of the Korean War in June 1950 transformed what had been a struggle into a Cold War battleground
Albania (Mehmet Shehu)
Bulgaria (Dimitar Ganev)
Czechoslovakia (Antonín Novotný)
East Germany (Hermann Matern)
Hungary (István Dobi)
North Korea (Kim Il-sung)
Mongolia (Yumjaagiin Tsedenbal)
Poland (Aleksander Zawadzki)
Romania (Emil Bodnăraș)
Soviet Union (Nikita Khrushchev)
North Vietnam (Ho Chi Minh)
