1.
Baku
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Baku is the capital and largest city of Azerbaijan, as well as the largest city on the Caspian Sea and of the Caucasus region. Baku is located 28 metres below sea level, which makes it the lowest lying national capital in the world and it is located on the southern shore of the Absheron Peninsula, alongside the Bay of Baku. At the beginning of 2009, Bakus urban population was estimated at just over two million people, officially, about 25 percent of all inhabitants of the country live in Bakus metropolitan area. Baku is divided into administrative districts and 48 townships. Among these are the townships on the islands of the Baku Archipelago, the Inner City of Baku, along with the Shirvanshahs Palace and Maiden Tower, were inscribed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 2000. According to the Lonely Planets ranking, Baku is also among the top ten destinations for urban nightlife. The city is the scientific, cultural and industrial center of Azerbaijan, many sizeable Azerbaijani institutions have their headquarters there. The Baku International Sea Trade Port is capable of handling two million tons of general and dry bulk cargoes per year, in recent years, Baku has become an important venue for international events. The city is renowned for its winds, which is reflected in its nickname. Indeed, the city is renowned for its fierce winter snow storms and this is also reflected in the citys nickname as the City of Winds. A less probable folk etymology explains the name as deriving from Baghkuy, baga and kuy are the Old Persian words for god and town respectively, the name Baghkuy may be compared with Baghdād in which dād is the Old Persian word for give. Arabic sources refer to the city as Baku, Bakukh, Bakuya, around 100,000 years ago, the territory of modern Baku and Absheron was savanna with rich flora and fauna. Traces of human settlement go back to the Stone age, from the Bronze age there have been rock carvings discovered near Bayil, and a bronze figure of a small fish discovered in the territory of the Old City. These have led some to suggest the existence of a Bronze Age settlement within the citys territory, further archeological excavations revealed various prehistoric settlements, native temples, statues and other artifacts within the territory of the modern city and around it. In the 1st century, the Romans organized two Caucasian campaigns and reached Baku, near the city, in Gobustan, Roman inscriptions dating from 84–96 AD were discovered. This is one of the earliest written evidences for Baku, during the 8th century Baku was the realm of the Shirvanshahs. The city frequently came under assault of the Khazars and the Rus, shirvanshah Akhsitan I built a navy in Baku and successfully repelled another Rus assault in 1170. After a devastating earthquake struck Shamakhy, the capital of Shirvan, the Shirvan era greatly influenced Baku and the remainder of Azerbaijan
2.
Azerbaijan Democratic Republic
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The ADR was founded by the Azerbaijani National Council in Tiflis on 28 May 1918 after the collapse of the Russian Empire. Its established borders were with Russia to the north, the Democratic Republic of Georgia to the north-west, the First Republic of Armenia to the west and it had a population of 2.86 million. Ganja was the capital of the Republic as Baku was under Bolshevik control. Fatali Khan Khoyski became its first prime minister, besides the Musavat majority, Ahrar, Ittihad, Muslim Social Democrats as well as representatives of Armenian, Russian, Polish, Jewish and German minorities gained seats in the parliament. Some members supported Pan-Islamist and Pan-Turkist ideas, another important accomplishment of the ADR was the establishment of Baku State University, which was the first modern-type university founded in Azerbaijan. It was a region of the Russian Empire, where 3 independent states were born later, Armenia, Georgia. The population of the latter was in major part Muslims and that is why it is referred to as Muslim territory when talking about this period of history. After the February revolution of 1917 in Russia on March 22,1917, the members of Ozakom were the members of the State Council and representatives of the Armenian, Georgian and Azerbaijan political elite. Ozakom announced that in the months the most important issues, i. e. national, religious, agrarian. In the course of April and May 1917 several Muslim Assemblies took place, like many ethnic minorities of Transcaucasia, Azeris aimed at secession from Russia after the February Revolution. Two general opinions were expressed by the representatives of the Muslim community, pan-Turkish, meaning joining with Turkey, the Transcaucasian region got an opportunity to decide its destiny, taking the course of federalization. After the October revolution of 1917 the Transcaucaisan government had to change its policy as Russia was now involved in the Civil War, the Transcaucausians did not accept the Bolshevik revolution. In February,1918 the Transcaucasian Council started its work in Tbilisi, the “Sejm” consisted of 125 deputies and represented 3 leading parties, Georgian mensheviks, Azerbaijan Muslims and Armenian “dashnaks”. Bolsheviks refused to join the Sejm and established their own government of the local Soviet in Baku, the Commune was formed by 85 Social Revolutionaries and Left Social Revolutionaries,48 Bolsheviks,36 Dashnaks,18 Musavatists and 13 Mensheviks. Stepan Shaumyan, a Bolshevik, and Prokopius Dzhaparidze, a leftist SR, were elected Chairmen of the Council of Peoples Commissioners of the Commune of Baku, the Russian Caucasus Army was degrading after the collapse of the Russian Empire. The Russian forces were substituted by new Armenian bodies, which were not prepared to the war, given the circumstances, the Transcaucasian Sejm signed the Armistice of Erzincan with the Ottoman Empire on December 5,1917. On March 3,1918 the Bolshevik government in Russia signed the Brest-Litovsk Treaty with Germany, one of the terms was the loss of the regions of Cars, Batumi and Ardagan to the Ottoman Empire. The terms of the Treaty revealed a conflict between Georgians and Armenians on one side and the Muslims on another
3.
Yerevan
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Yerevan is the capital and largest city of Armenia as well as one of the worlds oldest continuously inhabited cities. Situated along the Hrazdan River, Yerevan is the administrative, cultural and it has been the capital since 1918, the thirteenth in the history of Armenia, and the seventh located in or around the Ararat plain. The history of Yerevan dates back to the 8th century BC, Erebuni was designed as a great administrative and religious centre, a fully royal capital. During the centuries long Iranian rule over Eastern Armenia that lasted from the early 16th century up to 1828, in 1828, it became part of Imperial Russia alongside the rest of Eastern Armenia which conquered it from Iran through the Russo-Persian War between 1826 and 1828. After World War I, Yerevan became the capital of the First Republic of Armenia as thousands of survivors of the Armenian Genocide in the Ottoman Empire settled in the area, the city expanded rapidly during the 20th century as Armenia became part of the Soviet Union. As of 2011, the population of Yerevan was 1,060,138, according to the official estimate of 2016, the current population of the city is 1,073,700. Yerevan was named the 2012 World Book Capital by UNESCO, Yerevan is an associate member of Eurocities. One theory regarding the origin of Yerevans name is the city was named after the Armenian king, Yervand IV, the last leader of the Orontid Dynasty, and founder of the city of Yervandashat. However, it is likely that the name is derived from the Urartian military fortress of Erebuni. As elements of the Urartian language blended with that of the Armenian one, while looking in the direction of Yerevan, after the ark had landed on Mount Ararat and the flood waters had receded, Noah is believed to have exclaimed, Yerevats. In the late medieval and early periods, when Yerevan was under Turkic and later Persian rule. This name is widely used by Azerbaijanis. The city was known as Erivan under Russian rule during the 19th. The city was renamed back to Yerevan in 1936, up until the mid-1970s the citys name was spelled Erevan, more often than Yerevan, in English sources. The principal symbol of Yerevan is Mount Ararat, which is visible from any area in the capital, the seal of the city is a crowned lion on a pedestal with the inscription Yerevan. The lions head is turned backwards while it holds a scepter using the front leg. The symbol of eternity is on the breast of the lion with a picture of Ararat in the upper part, the emblem is a rectangular shield with a blue border. On 27 September 2004, Yerevan adopted an anthem, Erebuni-Yerevan, written by Paruyr Sevak and it was selected in a competition for a new anthem and new flag that would best represent the city
4.
First Republic of Armenia
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The First Republic of Armenia, officially known at the time of its existence as the Republic of Armenia, was the first modern Armenian state since the loss of Armenian statehood in the Middle Ages. The republic was established in the Armenian-populated territories of the disintegrated Russian Empire, the leaders of the government came mostly from the Armenian Revolutionary Federation. The First Republic of Armenia bordered the Democratic Republic of Georgia to the north, the Ottoman Empire to the west, Persia to the south, and it had a total land area of roughly 70,000 km², and a population of 1.3 million. The Armenian National Council declared the independence of Armenia on 28 May 1918, from the very onset, Armenia was plagued with a variety of domestic and foreign problems. A humanitarian crisis emerged from the aftermath of the Armenian Genocide as tens of thousands of Armenian refugees from the Ottoman Empire settled there, the republic lasted for over two years, during which time it was involved in several armed conflicts caused by territorial disputes. By late 1920, the nation was conquered by the Soviet Red Army, after the fall of the Soviet Union, the republic regained its independence as the current Republic of Armenia in 1991. With the help of several battalions of Armenians recruited from the Russian Empire, the Russians continued to make considerable advances even after the toppling of Tsar Nicholas II in February 1917. In March 1917, the revolution that toppled Tsar Nicholas. Shortly after, the Provisional Government replaced Grand Duke Nicholas administration in the Caucasus with the five-member Special Transcaucasian Committee, the Ozakom included Armenian Democrat Mikayel Papadjanian, and was set to heal wounds inflicted by the old regime. In doing so, Western Armenia was to have a general commissar and was to be subdivided into the districts of Trebizond, Erzerum, Bitlis, and Van. The decree was a concession to the Armenians, Western Armenia was placed under the central government. Dr. Hakob Zavriev would serve as the assistant for civil affairs, in October 1917, the Bolsheviks seized power from the Provisional Government and announced that they would be withdrawing troops from both the Western and Caucasus fronts. The Armenians, Georgians, and Muslims of the Caucasus all rejected the Bolsheviks legitimacy, on December 5,1917, the armistice of Erzincan was signed between the Ottoman Empire and the Transcaucasian Commissariat, ending armed conflict. After the Bolshevik seizure of power, a congress of Transcaucasian representatives met to create a provisional regional executive body known as the Transcaucasian Seim. The Commissariat and the Seim were heavily encumbered by the pretense that the South Caucasus formed a unit of a non-existent Russian democracy. The Armenian deputies in the Seim were hopeful that the forces in Russia would prevail in the Russian Civil War. In February 1918, the Armenians, Georgians and Muslims had reluctantly joined to form the Transcaucasian Federation, on March 3,1918, Russian followed the armistice of Erzincan with the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk, and left the war. It ceded territory From March 14 to April 1918, when a conference was held between the Ottoman Empire and the delegation of the Seim
5.
Red Army
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The Workers and Peasants Red Army was the army and the air force of the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic, and after 1922 the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. The army was established immediately after the 1917 October Revolution, the Bolsheviks raised an army to oppose the military confederations of their adversaries during the Russian Civil War. The Red Army is credited as being the land force in the Allied victory in the European theatre of World War II. During operations on the Eastern Front, it fought 75%–80% of the German land forces deployed in the war, inflicting the vast majority of all German losses and ultimately capturing the German capital. In September 1917, Vladimir Lenin wrote, There is only one way to prevent the restoration of the police, at the time, the Imperial Russian Army had started to collapse. The Tsarist general Nikolay Dukhonin estimated that there had been 2 million deserters,1.8 million dead,5 million wounded and 2 million prisoners and he estimated the remaining troops as numbering 10 million. Therefore, the Council of Peoples Commissars decided to form the Red Army on 28 January 1918 and they envisioned a body formed from the class-conscious and best elements of the working classes. All citizens of the Russian republic aged 18 or older were eligible, in the event of an entire unit wanting to join the Red Army, a collective guarantee and the affirmative vote of all its members would be necessary. Because the Red Army was composed mainly of peasants, the families of those who served were guaranteed rations, some peasants who remained at home yearned to join the Army, men, along with some women, flooded the recruitment centres. If they were turned away they would collect scrap metal and prepare care-packages, in some cases the money they earned would go towards tanks for the Army. Nikolai Krylenko was the supreme commander-in-chief, with Aleksandr Myasnikyan as deputy, Nikolai Podvoisky became the commissar for war, Pavel Dybenko, commissar for the fleet. Proshyan, Samoisky, Steinberg were also specified as peoples commissars as well as Vladimir Bonch-Bruyevich from the Bureau of Commissars, at a joint meeting of Bolsheviks and Left Socialist-Revolutionaries, held on 22 February 1918, Krylenko remarked, We have no army. The Red Guard units are brushed aside like flies and we have no power to stay the enemy, only an immediate signing of the peace treaty will save us from destruction. This provoked the insurrection of General Alexey Maximovich Kaledins Volunteer Army in the River Don region, the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk aggravated Russian internal politics. The situation encouraged direct Allied intervention in the Russian Civil War, a series of engagements resulted, involving, amongst others, the Czechoslovak Legion, the Polish 5th Rifle Division, and the pro-Bolshevik Red Latvian Riflemen. The Whites defeated the Red Army on each front, Leon Trotsky reformed and counterattacked, the Red Army repelled Admiral Kolchaks army in June, and the armies of General Denikin and General Yudenich in October. By mid-November the White armies were all almost completely exhausted, in January 1920, Budennys First Cavalry Army entered Rostov-on-Don. 1919 to 1923 At the wars start, the Red Army consisted of 299 infantry regiments, Civil war intensified after Lenin dissolved the Russian Constituent Assembly and the Soviet government signed the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk, removing Russia from the Great War
6.
Russian Civil War
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The Russian Civil War was a multi-party war in the former Russian Empire immediately after the Russian Revolutions of 1917, as many factions vied to determine Russias political future. In addition, rival militant socialists and nonideological Green armies fought against both the Bolsheviks and the Whites, eight foreign nations intervened against the Red Army, notably the Allied Forces and the pro-German armies. The Red Army defeated the White Armed Forces of South Russia in Ukraine, the remains of the White forces commanded by Pyotr Nikolayevich Wrangel were beaten in Crimea and evacuated in late 1920. Lesser battles of the war continued on the periphery for two years, and minor skirmishes with the remnants of the White forces in the Far East continued well into 1923. Armed national resistance in Central Asia was not completely crushed until 1934, there were an estimated 7,000, 000–12,000,000 casualties during the war, mostly civilians. The Russian Civil War has been described by some as the greatest national catastrophe that Europe had yet seen, many pro-independence movements emerged after the break-up of the Russian Empire and fought in the war. Several parts of the former Russian Empire—Finland, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, the rest of the former Russian Empire was consolidated into the Soviet Union shortly afterwards. After the abdication of Tsar Nicholas II of Russia, the Russian Provisional Government was established during the February Revolution of 1917, Political commissars were appointed to each unit of the army to maintain morale and ensure loyalty. In June 1918, when it became apparent that an army composed solely of workers would be far too small. Former Tsarist officers were utilized as military specialists, sometimes their families were taken hostage in order to ensure their loyalty, at the start of the war three-quarters of the Red Army officer corps was composed of former Tsarist officers. By its end, 83% of all Red Army divisional and corps commanders were ex-Tsarist soldiers, a Ukrainian nationalist movement was active in Ukraine during the war. More significant was the emergence of an anarchist political and military movement known as the Revolutionary Insurrectionary Army of Ukraine or the Anarchist Black Army led by Nestor Makhno, some of the military forces were set up on the basis of clandestine officers organizations in the cities. The Czechoslovak Legions had been part of the Russian army and numbered around 30,000 troops by October 1917 and they had an agreement with the new Bolshevik government to be evacuated from the Eastern Front via the port of Vladivostok to France. The transport from the Eastern Front to Vladivostok slowed down in the chaos, under pressure from the Central Powers, Trotsky ordered the disarming and arrest of the legionaries, which created tensions with the Bolsheviks. The Western Allies armed and supported opponents of the Bolsheviks, hence, many of these countries expressed their support for the Whites, including the provision of troops and supplies. Winston Churchill declared that Bolshevism must be strangled in its cradle, the British and French had supported Russia during World War I on a massive scale with war materials. After the treaty, it looked like much of material would fall into the hands of the Germans. Under this pretext began allied intervention in the Russian Civil War with the United Kingdom, there were violent clashes with troops loyal to the Bolsheviks
7.
Azerbaijan
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Azerbaijan, officially the Republic of Azerbaijan, is a country in the South Caucasus region, situated at the crossroads of Southwest Asia and Southeastern Europe. It is bound by the Caspian Sea to the east, Russia to the north, Georgia to the northwest, Armenia to the west and Iran to the south. The exclave of Nakhchivan is bound by Armenia to the north and east, Iran to the south and west, the Azerbaijan Democratic Republic proclaimed its independence in 1918 and became the first democratic state in the Muslim orient world. The country was incorporated into the Soviet Union in 1920 as the Azerbaijan Soviet Socialist Republic, the modern Republic of Azerbaijan proclaimed its independence on 30 August 1991, prior to the official dissolution of the USSR in December 1991. In September 1991, the Armenian majority of the disputed Nagorno-Karabakh region seceded to form the Nagorno-Karabakh Republic, the region and seven adjacent districts outside it became de facto independent with the end of the Nagorno-Karabakh War in 1994. These regions are recognized as part of Azerbaijan pending a solution to the status of the Nagorno-Karabakh. Azerbaijan is a unitary semi-presidential republic, the country is a member state of the Council of Europe, the OSCE and the NATO Partnership for Peace program. It is one of six independent Turkic states, a member of the Turkic Council. Azerbaijan has diplomatic relations with 158 countries and holds membership in 38 international organizations and it is one of the founding members of GUAM, the Commonwealth of Independent States and the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons. Its term of office began on 19 June 2006, Azerbaijan is also a member state of the Non-Aligned Movement, holds observer status in World Trade Organization and is a correspondent at the International Telecommunication Union. The Constitution of Azerbaijan does not declare an official religion and all political forces in the country are secularist. However, the majority of the population are of a Shiite Muslim background, Azerbaijan has a high level of human development which ranks on par with most Eastern European countries. It has a rate of economic development and literacy, as well as a low rate of unemployment. According to the Davos World Economic Forum, Azerbaijans economy has scored 37th place within 138 countries in 2016, Global Competitiveness Index 2015 indicates that Azerbaijan scores highest in its region. ASAN services, established with Presidential Decree, are known for eliminating bribery. ASAN Service has been awarded with United Nations Public Service Award 2015, the ruling party, the New Azerbaijan Party, has been accused of authoritarianism and human rights abuses. The original etymology of name is thought to have its roots in the once-dominant Zoroastrianism. In the Avesta, Frawardin Yasht, there is a mention of âterepâtahe ashaonô fravashîm ýazamaide, the name Atropates itself is the Greek transliteration of an Old Iranian, probably Median, compounded name with the meaning Protected by the Fire or The Land of the Fire
8.
Armenia
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Armenia, officially the Republic of Armenia, is a sovereign state in the South Caucasus region of Eurasia. The Republic of Armenia constitutes only one-tenth of historical Armenia, Armenia is a unitary, multi-party, democratic nation-state with an ancient cultural heritage. Urartu was established in 860 BC and by the 6th century BC it was replaced by the Satrapy of Armenia, in the 1st century BC the Kingdom of Armenia reached its height under Tigranes the Great. Armenia became the first state in the world to adopt Christianity as its official religion, in between the late 3rd century to early years of the 4th century, the state became the first Christian nation. The official date of adoption of Christianity is 301 AD. The ancient Armenian kingdom was split between the Byzantine and Sasanian Empires around the early 5th century, under the Bagratuni dynasty, the Bagratid Kingdom of Armenia was restored in the 9th century. Declining due to the wars against the Byzantines, the fell in 1045. An Armenian principality and later a kingdom Cilician Armenia was located on the coast of the Mediterranean Sea between the 11th and 14th centuries. By the 19th century, Eastern Armenia had been conquered by the Russian Empire, during World War I, Armenians living in their ancestral lands in the Ottoman Empire were systematically exterminated in the Armenian Genocide. By 1920, the state was incorporated into the Transcaucasian Socialist Federative Soviet Republic, in 1936, the Transcaucasian state was dissolved, transforming its constituent states, including the Armenian Soviet Socialist Republic, into full Union republics. The modern Republic of Armenia became independent in 1991 during the dissolution of the Soviet Union, the Republic of Armenia recognises the Armenian Apostolic Church, the worlds oldest national church, as the countrys primary religious establishment. The unique Armenian alphabet was invented by Mesrop Mashtots in 405 AD, Armenia is a member of the Eurasian Economic Union, the Council of Europe and the Collective Security Treaty Organization. Armenia supports the de facto independent Nagorno-Karabakh Republic, which was proclaimed in 1991, the native Armenian name for the country is Հայք. The name in the Middle Ages was extended to Հայաստան, by addition of the Persian suffix -stan, the further origin of the name is uncertain. It is also postulated that the name Hay comes from one of the two confederated, Hittite vassal states—the Ḫayaša-Azzi. The exonym Armenia is attested in the Old Persian Behistun Inscription as Armina, the ancient Greek terms Ἀρμενία and Ἀρμένιοι are first mentioned by Hecataeus of Miletus. Xenophon, a Greek general serving in some of the Persian expeditions, describes many aspects of Armenian village life and he relates that the people spoke a language that to his ear sounded like the language of the Persians. According to the histories of both Moses of Chorene and Michael Chamchian, Armenia derives from the name of Aram, a descendant of Hayk
9.
Red Army invasion of Georgia
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The independence of Georgia had been recognized by Soviet Russia in the Treaty of Moscow, signed on 7 May 1920, and the subsequent invasion of the country was not universally agreed upon in Moscow. Soviet forces took the Georgian capital Tbilisi after heavy fighting and declared the Georgian Soviet Socialist Republic on 25 February 1921, the rest of the country was overrun within three weeks, but it was not until September 1924 that Soviet rule was firmly established. Georgia effectively escaped Russian control in the aftermath of the February Revolution in Russia in 1917. After an abortive attempt to unite with Armenia and Azerbaijan in a federative state, although there were a significant number of highly qualified officers who had served in the Imperial Russian military, the army as a whole was underfed and poorly equipped. Since early 1920, local Bolsheviks were actively fomenting political unrest in Georgia, capitalizing on agrarian disturbances in rural areas, the operational centre of the Soviet military-political forces in the Caucasus was the Kavburo attached to the Central Committee of the Russian Communist Party. Set up in February 1920, this body was chaired by the Georgian Bolshevik Grigol Ordzhonikidze, the Soviet leadership successfully exploited this situation and sent in its army to occupy Baku, the capital of the Azerbaijan Democratic Republic. Following the establishment of Soviet rule in Baku in April 1920, Ordzhonikidze, probably acting on his own initiative, when the coup failed, the Georgian government was able to concentrate all its forces on successfully blocking the Soviet advance over the Georgian-Azerbaijani border. Facing a difficult war with Poland, Soviet leader Vladimir Lenin ordered a start to negotiations with Georgia, in the Treaty of Moscow signed on 7 May 1920, Soviet Russia recognized Georgias independence and concluded a non-aggression pact. The treaty established the borders between the two nations de jure and also obliged Georgia to surrender all third-party elements considered hostile by Moscow. In a secret supplement, Georgia promised to legalize the local Bolshevik party, despite the peace treaty, an eventual overthrow of the Menshevik-dominated government of Georgia was both intended and planned. Stalin called his homeland the kept woman of the Western Powers, Georgian independence was seen as a propaganda victory for exiled Russian Mensheviks in Europe, the Bolsheviks couldnt long tolerate a viable Menshevik state on their own doorstep. By that time, the British expeditionary corps had completely evacuated the Caucasus, Soviet military intervention was not universally agreed upon in Moscow, and there was considerable disagreement among the Bolshevik leaders on how to deal with their southern neighbor. He strongly supported a military overthrow of the Georgian government and continuously urged Lenin to give his consent for an advance into Georgia. The Peoples Commissar of War, Leon Trotsky, strongly disagreed with what he described as a “premature intervention”, for many Bolsheviks, self-determination was increasingly seen as a diplomatic game which has to be played in certain cases. Meanwhile, the Bolsheviks had already set up a Georgian Revolutionary Committee in Shulaveri, chaired by the Georgian Bolshevik Filipp Makharadze, the Revkom formally applied to Moscow for help. Disturbances also erupted in the town of Dusheti and among Ossetians in northeast Georgia who resented the Georgian governments refusal to grant them autonomy, Georgian forces managed to contain the disorders in some areas, but the preparations for a Soviet intervention were already being set in train. The ultimate decision was made at the 14 February meeting of the Central Committee of the Communist Party and it was opposed by Karl Radek and was held secret from Trotsky who was in the Ural area at that time. Later Trotsky would reconcile himself to the fact and even defend the invasion in a special pamphlet
10.
Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic
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The Republic comprised sixteen autonomous republics, five autonomous oblasts, ten autonomous okrugs, six krais, and forty oblasts. Russians formed the largest ethnic group, the capital of the Russian SFSR was Moscow and the other major urban centers included Leningrad, Novosibirsk, Yekaterinburg, Nizhny Novgorod and Samara. The Russian Soviet Republic was proclaimed on November 7,1917 as a sovereign state, the first Constitution was adopted in 1918. In 1922 the Russian SFSR signed the Treaty on the Creation of the USSR, the economy of Russia became heavily industrialized, accounting for about two-thirds of the electricity produced in the USSR. It was, by 1961, the third largest producer of petroleum due to new discoveries in the Volga-Urals region and Siberia, trailing only the United States and Saudi Arabia. In 1974, there were 475 institutes of education in the republic providing education in 47 languages to some 23,941,000 students. A network of territorially organized public-health services provided health care, the effects of market policies led to the failure of many enterprises and total instability by 1990. On June 12,1990, the Congress of Peoples Deputies adopted the Declaration of State Sovereignty, on June 12,1991, Boris Yeltsin was elected the first President. On December 8,1991, heads of Russia, Ukraine, the agreement declared dissolution of the USSR by its founder states and established the Commonwealth of Independent States. On December 12, the agreement was ratified by the Russian Parliament, therefore Russian SFSR denounced the Treaty on the Creation of the USSR and de facto declared Russias independence from the USSR. On December 25,1991, following the resignation of Mikhail Gorbachev as president of the Soviet Union, on December 26,1991, the USSR was self-dissolved by the Soviet of Nationalities, which by that time was the only functioning house of the Supreme Soviet. After dissolution of the USSR, Russia declared that it assumed the rights and obligations of the dissolved central Soviet government, the new Russian constitution, adopted on December 12,1993 after a constitutional crisis, abolished the Soviet system of government in its entirety. Initially, the state did not have a name and wasnt recognized by neighboring countries for five months. Meanwhile, anti-Bolsheviks coined the mocking label Sovdepia for the nascent state of the Soviets of Workers, on January 25,1918 the third meeting of the All-Russian Congress of Soviets renamed the unrecognized state the Soviet Russian Republic. The Treaty of Brest-Litovsk was signed on March 3,1918, on July 10,1918, the Russian Constitution of 1918 renamed the country the Russian Socialist Federative Soviet Republic. By 1918, during the Russian Civil War, several states within the former Russian Empire seceded, internationally, in 1920, the RSFSR was recognized as an independent state only by Estonia, Finland, Latvia and Lithuania in the Treaty of Tartu and by the short-lived Irish Republic. On December 30,1922, with the creation of the Soviet Union, the final Soviet name for the republic, the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic, was adopted in the Soviet Constitution of 1936. By that time, Soviet Russia had gained roughly the same borders of the old Tsardom of Russia before the Great Northern War of 1700
11.
White movement
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Remnants and continuations of the movement, some of which only had narrow support, endured within the wider White émigré community until after the fall of Communism. The Whites had the aim of bringing about law and order and the salvation of Russia, fighting against traitors, barbarians. They worked to remove Soviet organizations and functionaries in White-controlled territory, overall, the White Army was nationalistic, rejected ethnic particularism and separatism. The White Army generally believed in a united multinational Russia, amongst White Army members, anti-Semitism was widespread. Western sponsors expressed dismay at this, especially as the Bolsheviks had prohibited anti-Semitism, many of the White leaders were conservative, accepting autocracy while remaining suspicious of politics. Aside from being anti-Bolshevik and patriotic, the Whites had no set ideology or main leader, the White Armies did acknowledge a single provisional head of state, the so-called Supreme Governor of Russia, but this post was prominent only under the leadership of Admiral Alexander Kolchak. The movement had no set plan for foreign policy, Whites differed on policies toward Germany, the Whites wanted to keep from alienating any potential supporters and allies, and thus saw an exclusively monarchist position as a detriment to their cause and recruitment. White-movement leaders such as Anton Denikin advocated for Russians to create their own government, Admiral Alexander Kolchak succeeded in creating a temporary wartime government in Omsk, acknowledged by most other White leaders, only for it to fall with the loss of his armies. Some warlords who were aligned with the White movement, such as Grigory Semyonov and Roman Ungern von Sternberg, did not acknowledge any authority, consequently, the White movement had no set political leanings, members could be monarchists, republicans, rightists, Kadets, etc. Moreover, other parties supported the anti-Bolshevik White Army, among them the Socialist-Revolutionary Party. But depending on the time and place, those White Army supporters might also exchange right-wing allegiance for allegiance to the Red Army, the Volunteer Army in South Russia became the most prominent and the largest of the various and disparate White forces. Starting off as a small and well-organized military in January 1918, the Kuban Cossacks joined the White Army, and conscription of both peasants and Cossacks began. In late February 1918,4,000 soldiers under the command of General Aleksei Kaledin were forced to retreat from Rostov-on-Don due to the advance of the Red Army, in 1919 the Don Cossacks joined and the Army began drafting Ukrainian peasants. In that year, between May and October, the Volunteer Army grew from 64,000 to 150,000 soldiers and was better supplied than its Red counterpart. The White Armys rank-and-file comprised active anti-Bolsheviks, such as Cossacks, nobles, the White movement had access to various naval forces, both sea-going and river-based. Note especially the use of the Black Sea Fleet, aerial forces available to the Whites included the Slavo-British Aviation Corps. The Russian ace Alexander Kazakov operated within this unit, the White movements leaders and first members came mainly from the ranks of military officers. Many came from outside the nobility, such as generals Mikhail Alekseev, the White generals never mastered administration, they often utilized prerevolutionary functionaries or military officers with monarchististic inclinations for administering White-controlled regions
12.
Anton Denikin
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Anton Ivanovich Denikin was a Lieutenant General in the Imperial Russian Army and afterwards a leading general of the White movement in the Russian Civil War. Denikin was born in Szpetal Dolny village, now part of the Polish city Włocławek in the Kuyavian-Pomeranian Voivodeship and his father, Ivan Efimovich Denikin, had been born a serf in the province of Saratov. Sent as a recruit to do 25 years of military service and he retired from the army in 1869 with the rank of major. In 1869 Ivan Denikin married Polish seamstress Elżbieta Wrzesińska as his second wife, Anton Denikin, the couples only child, spoke both Russian and Polish growing up. His fathers Russian patriotism and devotion to the Russian Orthodox religion led Anton Denikin to the Russian army, the Denikins lived very close to poverty, with the retired majors small pension as their only source of income, and their finances worsened after Ivans death in 1885. Anton Denikin at this time began tutoring younger schoolmates to support the family, in 1890 Denikin enrolled at the Kiev Junker School, a military college from which he graduated in 1892. The twenty-year-old Denikin joined a brigade, in which he served for three years. In 1895 he was first accepted into the General Staff Academy, after this disappointment, Denikin attempted to attain acceptance again. On his next attempt he did better and finished fourteenth in his class, however, to his misfortune, the Academy decided to introduce a new system of calculating grades and as a result Denikin was not offered a staff appointment after the final exams. He protested the decision to the highest authority, after being offered a settlement according to which he would rescind his complaint in order to attain acceptance into the General Staff school again, Denikin declined, insulted. Denikin first saw service during the 1905 Russo-Japanese War. In 1905 he won promotion to the rank of colonel, in 1910 he became commander of the 17th infantry regiment. A few weeks before the outbreak of the First World War, by the outbreak of World War I in August 1914 Denikin was a Chief of staff of the Kiev Military District. He was initially appointed Quartermaster of General Brusilovs 8th Army, not one for staff service, Denikin petitioned for an appointment to a fighting front. He was transferred to the 4th Rifle Brigade and his brigade was transformed into a division in 1915. It was with this brigade Denikin would accomplish his greatest feats as a General, in 1916 he was appointed to command the Russian VIII Corps and lead troops in Romania during the last successful Russian campaign of the war, the Brusilov Offensive. Following the February Revolution and the overthrow of Tsar Nicholas II, he became Chief of Staff to Mikhail Alekseev, then Aleksei Brusilov, Denikin supported the attempted coup of his commander, the Kornilov Affair, in September 1917 and was arrested and imprisoned with him. After this Alekseev would be reappointed commander-in-Chief, Kornilov was killed in April 1918 near Ekaterinodar and the Volunteer Army came under Denikins command
13.
Volunteer Army
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The Volunteer Army was an anti-Bolshevik army in South Russia during the Russian Civil War of 1918–1920. The Volunteer Army began forming in November/December 1917 under the leadership of Gen. Mikhail Alekseyev in Novocherkassk and Gen. Lavr Kornilov, initially it included volunteering officers, cadets, students and Cossacks. Of the first 3,000 recruits just 12 were ordinary soldiers, on December 27,1917, the creation of the Volunteer Army was officially announced. In early January 1918 the Volunteer Army numbered approximately 4,000 men, however, most of the Kuban Cossacks did not give their support to the Volunteer Army. Only a small unit under the command of Gen. Viktor Pokrovsky joined the Volunteer Army on March 26,1918, the Volunteer Armys attempt to capture Yekaterinodar between April 9–13 was a disaster, with Gen. Kornilov being killed in battle. Gen. Denikin took over command of the remnants of the Volunteer Army, in June 19183,000 men under the command of Col. Mikhail Drozdovsky joined the Volunteer Army, bringing its strength to between 8, 000-9,000 men. On June 23 the Volunteer Army began its so-called Second Kuban Campaign with support from Gen. Pyotr Krasnov, by September 1918 the Volunteer Army was up to 30, 000–35,000 men thanks to the mobilization of the Kuban Cossacks and counterrevolutionary elements gathered in the North Caucasus. Thus, the Volunteer Army took the name of the Caucasus Volunteer Army, in the autumn of 1918 the governments of Great Britain, France and the United States increased their material and technical assistance to the Volunteer Army. With the support from the Entente, the forces of the South Russian Whites were combined into the so-called Armed Forces of South Russia under the command of Gen. Denikin, in late 1918-early 1919 Denikin defeated the 11th Soviet Army and captured the North Caucasus region. In January 1919 the Caucasus Volunteer Army was divided into the Caucasus Army and the Volunteer Army, after capturing Donbass, Tsaritsyn and Kharkov in June 1919, Denikin began to advance towards Moscow on June 20. According to his plan, the blow to Moscow was to be inflicted by the Volunteer Army under the command of Gen. Vladimir May-Mayevsky. The White Army was accused by the Soviets of cruelty in its territories, usually against the workers. Some of the units and formations of the Volunteer Army possessed good skills and fighting strength due to a large number of officers in its ranks. However, the Volunteer Armys fighting efficiency started to decrease in the summer of 1919 in light of significant losses and conscription of mobilized peasants, during the Red Armys counteroffensive, the Volunteer Army sustained a decisive defeat and rolled back to the south. In early 1920 it retreated to the areas beyond the Don region and was reduced to a corps of 5,000 men under the command of Gen. Alexander Kutepov. On March 26 and March 27,1920, the remnants of the Volunteer Army were evacuated from Novorossiysk to the Crimea, the Volunteer Army has been criticized for its treatment of political prisoners. Sokolov, an anti-Bolshevik activist and Kadet politician who advocated for the Russian governments movement toward a constitutional monarchy, lambasted this characteristic of his own organization. Edward M. Dune, a member of the Red Guard, for instance, in reference to the Kuban Cossacks rebellion, Dune explains, Our actions … differed little from the behavior of the White Army during the war itself
14.
North Caucasus
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The North Caucasus or Ciscaucasus is the northern part of the Caucasus region between the Sea of Azov and Black Sea on the west and the Caspian Sea on the east, within European Russia. Geopolitically, the Northern Caucasus includes the Russian republics and krais of the North Caucasus, the outer border of the Soviet Unions North Caucasus Krai was the same as that of present-day North Caucasus Economic Region which includes an oblast, two krais, and seven republics. The former North Caucasus Military District also included Astrakhan Oblast, Volgograd Oblast, and its administrative center was Rostov-on-Don until 10 January 1934, Pyatigorsk until January 1936, then Ordzhonikidze and, from 15 December 1936, Voroshilovsk. Geographically, the term North Caucasus also refers to the slope and western extremity of the Caucasus Major mountain range. The Forecaucasus steppe area is also encompassed under the notion of Ciscaucasus, thus the northern boundary of the Forecaucasus steppe is generally considered to be the Manych River. Ciscaucasus was historically covered by the Pontic steppe, mostly on fertile calcareous chernozyom soils and it is bounded by the Sea of Azov on the west, and the Caspian Sea on the east. According to the Concise Atlas of the World, Second Edition, shaw, Institute of British Geographers Media related to North Caucasus at Wikimedia Commons North Caucasus travel guide from Wikivoyage Relations between The North and South Caucasus. Articles in the Caucasus Analytical Digest No.27
15.
Azerbaijan Soviet Socialist Republic
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Established on 28 April 1920 as the Azerbaijan SSR, from 12 March 1922 to 5 December 1936, it was part of the Transcausasian SFSR together with the Armenian SSR and the Georgian SSR. In December 1922, the Transcaucasian SFSR became part of the newly established Soviet Union, the Constitution of Azerbaijan SSR was approved by the 9th Extraordinary All-Azerbaijani Congress of Soviets on 14 March 1937. On 19 November 1990, Azerbaijan SSR was renamed the Republic of Azerbaijan, the Constitution of the Azerbaijan SSR ceased to exist in 1995, upon the adoption of the new Constitution of Azerbaijan. The name Azerbaijan originates as the Land of Atropates, an Achaemenid then Hellenistic-era king over a region in present-day Iranian Azarbaijan and Iranian Kurdistan, despite this difference, the present name was chosen by the Musavat to replace the Russian names Transcaucasia and Baku in 1918. Azerbaijan derives from Persian Āzarbāydjān, from earlier Ādharbāyagān and Ādharbādhagān, from Middle Persian Āturpātākān, from its founding it was officially known as the Azerbaijan Socialist Soviet Republic. Upon independence, it was renamed to the Republic of Azerbaijan in 1991, the current official name was retained after the new Constitution of Azerbaijan was adopted in 1995. On 13 October 1921, the Soviet republics of Russia, Armenia, Azerbaijan, the previously independent Naxicivan SSR would also become an autonomous ASSR within Azerbaijan by the Treaty of Kars. Borders of Azerbaijan and Armenia, like elsewhere in the USSR, were several times. On 12 March 1922 the leaders of Azerbaijan, Armenian, and this was the first attempt at a union of Soviet republics, preceding the USSR. The Union Council of TSFSR consisted of the representatives of the three republics – Nariman Narimanov, Polikarp Mdivani, and Aleksandr Fyodorovich Miasnikyan, the First Secretary of the Transcaucasian Communist Party was Sergo Ordzhonikidze. In December 1922 TSFSR agreed to join the union with Russia, Ukraine, the TSFSR, however, did not last long. In December 1936, the Transcaucasian Union was finally dismantled when the leaders in the Union Council found themselves unable to come to agreement over several issues, Azerbaijan, Armenia, and Georgia then became union Republics of the Soviet Union directly. In the spring of 1921, a general change-over from revkoms, in order to help the Azerbaijani oil industry the Supreme Council of the National Economy decided in the same year to provide it with everything necessary out of turn. The new oilfields, like Ilyich Bay, Qara-Chukhur, Lok-Batan, in 1929 a great kolkhoz movement had developed and Azerbaijan became the second Soviet tea producer after the Georgian SSR for the first time. On 31 March 1931 the oil industry of the Azerbaijan SSR, the republic gained the second Order on 15 March 1935 during the observation of its 15th anniversary. At the end of the second five-year plan Azerbaijan appeared at 3rd place in the Soviet Union by its capital investment size, in 1938, the Azerbaijani alphabet was changed from Latin to Cyrillic alphabet. During the period 17 September 1939 to 21 June 1941, the Soviet Union was Nazi Germanys most important ally, in April,1940, intelligence flights by the British and French Air Forces passed over the Absheron Peninsula. Great Britain and France seriously considered the possibility of bombing the Republics oil fields and this changed when Germany invaded the Soviet Union on 22 June 1941
16.
Transcaucasia
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Transcaucasia, or the South Caucasus, is a geopolitical region in the vicinity of the southern Caucasus Mountains on the border of Eastern Europe and Western Asia. Transcaucasia roughly corresponds to modern Georgia, Armenia, and Azerbaijan, Transcaucasia and Ciscaucasia together comprise the larger Caucasus geographical region that divides Eurasia. All of present-day Armenia is in Transcaucasia, the majority of present-day Georgia and Azerbaijan, including the exclave of Nakhchivan, parts of Iran and Turkey are also included within the region of Transcaucasia. Goods produced in the region include oil, manganese ore, tea, citrus fruits and it remains one of the most politically tense regions in the post-Soviet area, and contains three heavily disputed areas, Abkhazia, South Ossetia, and Nagorno-Karabakh. Between 1878 and 1917 the Russian controlled province of Kars Oblast was also incorporated into the Transcaucasus, Transcaucasia is a Latin rendering of the Russian-language word zakavkazie, meaning the area beyond the Caucasus Mountains. This implies a Russian vantage point, and is analogous to similar terms such as Transnistria and Transleithania, other forms of this word include Trans-Caucasus and Transcaucasus. The region is referred to as Southern Caucasia and the South Caucasus. Located on the peripheries of Turkey, Iran and Russia, the region has been an arena for political, military, religious, throughout history, Transcaucasia was usually under the direct rule of the various in-Iran based empires and part of the Iranian world. In the course of the 19th century, Qajar Iran had to cede the region as a result of the two Russo-Persian Wars of that century to Imperial Russia. Ancient kingdoms of the region included Armenia, Albania and Iberia, later, the Orthodox Christian Kingdom of Georgia dominated most of Transcaucasia. The region was conquered by the Seljuk, Mongol, Turkic, Safavid, Ottoman, Afsharid. The 1826-1828 conquerings were confirmed in the 1828 Treaty of Turkmenchay, in 1801, what is now Georgia was formally incorporated into the Russian Empire. After 1828-1829 war, Ottomans ceded Western Georgia except Adjaria, which was known as Sanjak of Batum, finally after Russo-Turkish War, Russians completed conquest of Transcaucasus. In 1844, Georgia, Armenia and Azerbaijan were combined into a single czarist government-general, Transcaucasia, in particular where modern-day Turkey, Georgia, Armenia and Iran are located, is one of the native areas of the wine-producing vine Vitis vinifera. Some experts speculate that Transcaucasia may be the birthplace of wine production, archaeological excavations and carbon dating of grape seeds from the area have dated back to 7000–5000 BC. Wine found in Iran has been dated to c. 7400 BC and c. 5000 BC, the earliest winery, dated to c. 4000 BC, was found in Armenia
17.
Ijevan
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Ijevan, is a town in Armenia and the administrative centre of the Tavush Province. It is located in the center of the region, at the foot of Ijevan and Nalteket ridges of Gugark mountains, as of the 2011 census, the population of the town is 21,081, making it the most populated town in the province. Ijevan is located 137 km northeast of Yerevan, the Yerevan-Tbilisi highway passes through Ijevan. The towns current name Ijevan, and its former name Karavansara, the area of modern-day Ijevan used to have many roadside inns known as caravanserais that served travelers between historic Syria and North Caucasus. The settlement became to be known as Istibulagh, literally meaning hot spring in Azeri, on the same site, the small village of Karavansara was founded in the 1780s during the Persian rule. He gathered only the girls and the handsome boys from all over Armenia, so that later they would get married. Thus, the successors of that handsome generation live today in Ijevan, being located on a very important trade route between the Levant and Northern Caucasus, the region was home to many rest-houses and caravanserais for the merchants and their caravans. In the 1780s, during the Persian rule, the village of Karavansara was founded, in 1801, the area of Ijevan along with Lori Province and the Georgian territories became part of the Russian Empire. During the rule of Paul I, approximately 6000 Armenian families from Karabakh were allowed to move to the valley of Aghstev river, in 1919, after the independence of Armenia, the name of the settlement of Karavansara was changed into Ijevan. On 29 November 1920, Ijevan was the venue of the first Soviet rule in Armenia after being invaded by the Red Army from the north. Chamber tombs near the city hospital and a late Bronze Age cemetery on the bank of Aghstev attest to the early occupation of the site. The remains of a medieval caravanserai could be found on the banks of Aghstev river on a site called Hamam-Jala, Ijevan was granted the status of an urban community in 1970. Surrounded with the Gugark mountains, Ijevan is situated in the valley of Aghstev river at an height of 755 meters above sea level. The surrounding mountains are covered with forests, turning into alpine meadows in some areas. Ijevan is bordered by the village of Getahovit from the north, there is a small lake at the southern entrance of the town known as Spitak Jur. This location is classified as Cfa by Köppen and Geiger, the average temperature of the year is 10.6 C, in January 0 C, while in July 21.3 C. The maximum temperature registered ever in Ijevan is +37 C and the minimum is -23, the annual precipitation is 562 mm. With a population of 20,223, Ijevan is the largest urban community of Tavush, there has been no census since 2001
18.
Alexei Ivanovich Avtonomov
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Alexei Ivanovich Avtonomov was a Russian Red military commander during the Russian Civil War. He fought in World War I with the rank of Cornet, in January 1918, Avtonomov was made Commander of the South-Eastern Revolutionary Army, then based near the village of Tikhoretskaya in Omsk Oblast near Russian Central Asia. During April 91918 – April 131918, Avtonomov led the defense of the city of Krasnodar in the Kuban area of southern Russia against Kornilovs anti-Soviet Volunteer Army. For a short period in April and May 1918, Avtonomov was commander of the Army of the Northern Caucasus and he waged a bitter struggle with the civil authorities of the Kuban-Black Sea Soviet Republic, in which he supported the military commanders, including Ivan Sorokin. The dispute was decided in Moscow by the Bolshevik leaders, after this, Avtonomov commanded a detachment in the fighting on the Terek River, and at Svyatoy Krest in January 1919. He died of typhus on February 2,1919, Russian Turmoil - Memoirs, Military, Social & Political. ISBN 5-8112-1890-7 Complete text here Brief biography Photograph of Avtonomov
19.
Sergo Ordzhonikidze
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Ordzhonikidze, Stalin and Anastas Mikoyan comprised what was jokingly referred to as the Caucasian Clique. Ordzhonikidze was born in present-day Kharagauli, western Georgia, into a Georgian noble family and he became involved in radical politics in 1903 and took part in the Revolution of 1905-1907. He was arrested for smuggling arms in December 1905, but when released on bail after five months he fled to Germany, in 1907 he returned to the Caucasus and settled in Baku, where he worked as a medical assistant while involved with Stalin and others in Bolshevik activity. Historians have come to believe that Ordzhonikidze played a role in the 1907 assassination of Prince Ilia Chavchavadze, in 1907 he was arrested at a May Day demonstration and served 26 days in prison under the pseudonym Kuchishvili. He later spent 18 months in prison in Sukhumi as a result of his 1905 arrest, Ordzhonikidze participated in the Persian Constitutional Revolution on a mission by the Bolshevik party and stayed in Tehran for a time around 1909. Following the establishment of the Longjumeau Party School in 1911, Ordzhonikidze was sent by Lenin to the Russian Empire to help organise an all party conference. He was arrested for being a member of the Social Democratic Party and deported to Siberia and he returned with Stalin to Saint Petersburg in April 1912, but was again apprehended and sentenced to three years hard labour. During the course of the Russian Civil War, he became a commissar for Ukraine, appointed chairman of Kavbiuro, the Caucasian Bureau of the Russian Communist Party in 1920, he was instrumental in the incorporation of the Caucasus in the nascent Soviet Union. Later, he fought to reduce Georgian autonomy from the Russian SFSR and his brutal treatment of Georgian communists antagonised Lenin who proposed he be expelled from the Communist Party. During the same period, he also aided Mirza Koochak Khan in establishing the short-lived Socialist Republic of Gilan in northern Iran, for a time Ordzhonikidze served for the collegium of the new Cheka. Ordzhonikidze became a member of the Politburo in 1926, but was relieved of his duties the same year. He became a member in 1930. He was appointed Peoples Commissar of Soviet Heavy Industry in 1932, an important role as the Second Five-Year Plan gave priority to the development of heavy industry. However Conquest states that he was dependent on the technical skills and knowledge of his deputy. Conquest reports that he knew the allegations against Pyatakov were false and had Stalin’s assurance that he would not be executed, the depth of Ordzhonikidze’s devotion to Stalin is disputed. Sent to the provinces during the Great Famine he reported correctly that it was a disaster, according to historian Roy Medvedev, Ordzhonikidze also opposed the purges of Stalin, Lazar Kaganovich and Nikolai Yezhov and the arrest of his deputy Pyatakov. However historian Oleg Khlevniuk reports finding no evidence in Soviet archives that Ordzhonikidze disagreed with the Moscow Trials, according to the archives, Ordzhonikidze questioned Pyatakov personally, and was convinced of his guilt. Ordzhonikidze is reported to have suffered an attack in November 1936
20.
Sergey Kirov
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Sergei Mironovich Kirov, born Kostrikov, was a prominent early Bolshevik leader in the Soviet Union. Kirov rose through the Communist Party ranks to head of the party organization in Leningrad. On 1 December 1934, Kirov was shot and killed by a gunman at his offices in the Smolny Institute, some historians place the blame for his assassination at the hands of Joseph Stalin and believe the NKVD organized his execution, but conclusive evidence for this claim remains lacking. Complicity in Kirovs assassination was a charge to which the accused confessed in the show trials of the period. The cities of Kirov, Kirovohrad, Kirovakan, and Kirovabad, following the collapse of the Soviet Union, Kirovakan and Kirovabad returned to their original names, Vanadzor and Ganja, respectively. In order to comply with decommunization laws Kirovohrad was renamed in July 2016 by the Ukrainian parliament to Kropyvnytskyi, miron, an alcoholic, abandoned the family around 1890. In 1893, Yekaterina died of tuberculosis, through her connections, she succeeded in having Sergey placed in an orphanage, but he saw his sisters and grandmother regularly. In 1901 a group of wealthy benefactors provided a scholarship for him to attend a school at Kazan. After gaining his degree in engineering he moved to Tomsk in Siberia, Kirov became a Marxist and joined the Russian Social Democratic Labor Party in 1904. Kirov took part in the Russian Revolution of 1905, and was arrested and he joined with the Bolsheviks soon after being released from prison. In 1906, Kirov was arrested again, but this time jailed for over three years, charged with printing illegal literature. Soon after his release, he took part in revolutionary activity. Once again being arrested for printing illegal literature, after a year of custody, Kostrikov moved to the Caucasus, where he stayed until the abdication of Tsar Nicholas II. By this time, Sergei Kostrikov had changed his name to Kirov in order to make his name easier to remember, kostrikove began using the pen name Kir, first publishing under the pseudonym Kirov on April 26,1912. One account states that he chose the name Kir, after a Christian martyr in third-century Egypt from an Orthodox calendar of saints days, a second story is that he based it on the name of the Persian king Cyrus. Kirov became commander of the Bolshevik military administration in Astrakhan, following the Russian Revolution of 1917, he fought in the Russian Civil War until 1920. Simon Sebag Montefiore writes, During the Civil War, Kirov was one of the swashbuckling commissars in the North Caucasus beside Ordzhonikidze, in Astrakhan he enforced Bolshevik power in March 1919 with liberal bloodletting, more than 4,000 were killed. When a bourgeois was caught hiding his own furniture, Kirov ordered him shot, in 1921, he became manager of the Azerbaijan party organization
21.
Valerian Kuybyshev
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Valerian Vladimirovich Kuybyshev was a Russian revolutionary, Red Army officer, and prominent Soviet politician. Kuybyshev was born in Omsk in the Russian Empire on 6 June 1888 and he studied at the Omsk Military Cadet School. He joined the Bolshevik faction of the Russian Social Democratic Labour Party in 1904, the following year, he entered a military medical academy, but was expelled in 1906 for controversial political activities. In May 1912 he fled and returned to Omsk, where he was arrested the next month, during the Russian Civil War he chaired the revolutionary committee of Samara province and became a political commissar in the First and Fourth Red Armies. In 1920 Kuybyshev was elected a member of Presidium of the Red International of Trade Unions, from 6 July 1923 to 5 August 1926 he was the first economical inspector of the USSR. From 1926 to 1930 he chaired the Supreme Council of the National Economy, from 1930 to 1934 he directed Gosplan, as a principal economic advisor to Joseph Stalin, he was one of the most influential members in the Communist Party. He was awarded the Order of the Red Banner, Kuybyshev was one of the initiators of the first edition of the Great Soviet Encyclopedia and was a member of its chief editorial board. Kuybyshev died in Moscow on 25 January 1935 of heart failure, in 1938, at the height of the Great Purge, his former wife and brother were executed under obscure charges. As Bolshevik tradition had established, he was buried outside the Kremlin walls, Kuybyshev married twice, but never had any children. He was a musician and poet. One of his wives was the niece of Yevgenia Bosch, Galina Aleksandrovna Troyanovskaya, the city of Samara, the town of Bolgar, and the town of Haghartsin, Armenia were all renamed Kuybyshev during the period between 1935 and 1991. The towns of Kuybyshev in Novosibirsk Oblast, Russia, and Kuybyshev, Armenia, media related to Valerian Kuybyshev at Wikimedia Commons Biography page page page
22.
North Caucasus Military District
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It has the same borders as the Southern Federal District. Its last commander was Lieutenant General Alexander Galkin, appointed from January 2010, the District was originally established on 4 May 1918, and reorganised as a field formation during the Russian Civil War. The First Cavalry Army was formed in the District in November 1919, the District was reformed in the early 1920s with its headquarters at Rostov. Kliment Voroshilov was made district commander, during the 1920s and 1930s the District became home to many training establishments, which were to multiply greatly during World War II. The 23rd Rifle Division was reported to have formed in the prior to August 1932. In June 1941 the districts first line comprised the 64th Rifle Corps commanded by Major General A. D. The 19th Army was formed in the District in May–June 1941 under former district commander Ivan Konev and was engaged against the Germans from the beginning of Operation Barbarossa, 50th and 53rd Cavalry Divisions were also formed here, joining the Soviet Western Front. The Separate Coastal Army was formed, for the second time, immediately following the war, to demobilise the force, on 9 July 1945 the territory was split into three military districts, Donskoy, Stavropols, and Kuban. The Kuban Military District comprised the 29th Rifle Corps, as well as the 9th Rifle Division, by summer 1946 the 29th Rifle Corps had been reduced to commanding the 8th, 9th, and 39th Independent Rifle Brigades. They were reexpanded into divisions in 1951, the staff of the Donskoy Military District was located in Rostov-on-Don, and was considered the heir of the traditions of the North Caucasus Military District. Among the formations in the Don Military District was the 6th Rifle Corps, in early 1946 its three rifle divisions were reduced to separate rifle brigades. In 1946 the Donskoy Military District was renamed again as the North Caucasian MD, the official Russian military website notes the work of the soldiers of the district in helping repair the ravages of the war. The important Kapustin Yar test range was created in the District following the war, in 1955 the districts forces included the 6th Rifle Corps. Other forces included the 29th Rifle Corps, 9th Rifle, 19th Rifle, 24th Guards Rifle, 46th Rifle, and 73rd Mountain Rifle Division, in 1957 the 12th Rifle Corps became the 12th Army Corps. At the time it controlled the 42nd Guards Motor Rifle Division and the 92nd Motor Rifle Division, in 1957 the 29th Rifle Corps became the 29th Army Corps, but nine years later it was moved to Belogorsk, Amur Oblast, in the Far East Military District. The District was awarded the Order of the Red Banner in 1968, in 1974 the 14th Tank Division was established at Novocherkassk, to replace the 51st Tank Division which was moving to Mongolia. In 1979 Scott and Scott reported the Districts HQ address as Rostov-na-Donu 18, Ulitsa Tekucheva, in 1980 the 12th Army Corps controlled the 9th Motor Rifle Division, the 156th Motor Rifle Division, and the 113th Motor Rifle Division at Goryachiy Klyuch, Krasnodar Krai. The 113th Motor Rifle Division was formed in 1978, and in 1981 moved to Molkino, the same year, the 34th Army Corps controlled the 82nd Motor Rifle Division and 197th Motor Rifle Division. A
23.
International Standard Book Number
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The International Standard Book Number is a unique numeric commercial book identifier. An ISBN is assigned to each edition and variation of a book, for example, an e-book, a paperback and a hardcover edition of the same book would each have a different ISBN. The ISBN is 13 digits long if assigned on or after 1 January 2007, the method of assigning an ISBN is nation-based and varies from country to country, often depending on how large the publishing industry is within a country. The initial ISBN configuration of recognition was generated in 1967 based upon the 9-digit Standard Book Numbering created in 1966, the 10-digit ISBN format was developed by the International Organization for Standardization and was published in 1970 as international standard ISO2108. Occasionally, a book may appear without a printed ISBN if it is printed privately or the author does not follow the usual ISBN procedure, however, this can be rectified later. Another identifier, the International Standard Serial Number, identifies periodical publications such as magazines, the ISBN configuration of recognition was generated in 1967 in the United Kingdom by David Whitaker and in 1968 in the US by Emery Koltay. The 10-digit ISBN format was developed by the International Organization for Standardization and was published in 1970 as international standard ISO2108, the United Kingdom continued to use the 9-digit SBN code until 1974. The ISO on-line facility only refers back to 1978, an SBN may be converted to an ISBN by prefixing the digit 0. For example, the edition of Mr. J. G. Reeder Returns, published by Hodder in 1965, has SBN340013818 -340 indicating the publisher,01381 their serial number. This can be converted to ISBN 0-340-01381-8, the check digit does not need to be re-calculated, since 1 January 2007, ISBNs have contained 13 digits, a format that is compatible with Bookland European Article Number EAN-13s. An ISBN is assigned to each edition and variation of a book, for example, an ebook, a paperback, and a hardcover edition of the same book would each have a different ISBN. The ISBN is 13 digits long if assigned on or after 1 January 2007, a 13-digit ISBN can be separated into its parts, and when this is done it is customary to separate the parts with hyphens or spaces. Separating the parts of a 10-digit ISBN is also done with either hyphens or spaces, figuring out how to correctly separate a given ISBN number is complicated, because most of the parts do not use a fixed number of digits. ISBN issuance is country-specific, in that ISBNs are issued by the ISBN registration agency that is responsible for country or territory regardless of the publication language. Some ISBN registration agencies are based in national libraries or within ministries of culture, in other cases, the ISBN registration service is provided by organisations such as bibliographic data providers that are not government funded. In Canada, ISBNs are issued at no cost with the purpose of encouraging Canadian culture. In the United Kingdom, United States, and some countries, where the service is provided by non-government-funded organisations. Australia, ISBNs are issued by the library services agency Thorpe-Bowker
24.
Richard G. Hovannisian
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Richard Gable Hovannisian is an Armenian American historian and professor emeritus at the University of California, Los Angeles. He is known mainly for his history of the First Republic of Armenia. Hovannisian was born and raised in Tulare, California into a family of Armenian Genocide survivors and his father, Gaspar Gavroian, was born in 1901 in the village of Bazmashen, near Kharpert in the Ottoman Empire. Fleeing the genocide of 1915, he moved to the United States by 1920 and changed his last name from Gavroian to Hovannisian, after his fathers name, in 1926, Kaspar married Siroon Nalbandian, also a child of the genocide survivors. Their two sons were born in 1928 and 1930, Richard Gable Hovannisian was born last on November 9,1932. Hovannisian married Vartiter Kotcholosian in 1957 at the Holy Trinity Armenian Church of Fresno and they had several children, including Raffi, who later went on to become the first Foreign Minister of Armenia and is currently an opposition politician. Hovannisian received his B. A. in history from the University of California, Berkeley and he was also an associate professor of history at Mount St. Marys College, Los Angeles, from 1966 to 1969, having joined UCLA in 1962. Hovannisians scholarly work early on was focused on the history of the First Republic of Armenia and these volumes were generally well-received among scholarly circles. In 1986, Hovannisian was appointed as the first holder of the Armenian Educational Foundation Endowed Chair in Modern Armenian History at UCLA, Hovannisian is a Guggenheim Fellow who has received numerous honors for his scholarship, civic activities, and advancement of Armenian Studies. His biographical entries are included in Whos Who in America and Whos Who in the World among other scholarly and he received the UCLA Alumni Associations 2010-2011 Most Inspiring Teacher award. Since 2000, Hovannisian has overseen and edited a number of studies on the former Armenian-populated towns. In a 2006 interview Hovannisian criticized the government of then President Robert Kocharyan for its authoritarian nature, hovanissian partook in the protests following the 2013 presidential election in Armenia in which his son, Raffi, came in second according to official results. The Republic of Armenia, Vol. I, Vol. II, III & IV Berkeley, University of California Press The Armenian Holocaust, Cambridge, Massachusetts, Armenian Heritage Press The Armenian People from Ancient to Modern Times,2 vols. New York, St. Martins Press,1997 Remembrance and Denial, Hovannisian, Richard G. Simon Vratzian and Armenian Nationalism. Hovannisian, Richard G. Armenia and the Caucasus in the Genesis of the Soviet-Turkish Entente, international Journal of Middle East Studies. Dimensions of Democracy and Authority in Caucasian Armenia, 1917-1920, family of Shadows, A Century of Murder, Memory, and the Armenian American Dream
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Army
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An army or ground force is a fighting force that fights primarily on land. In the broadest sense, it is the military branch. It may also include other branches of the such as the air force via means of aviation corps. Within a national force, the word army may also mean a field army. They differ from army reserves who are activated only during such times as war or natural disasters, in several countries, the army is officially called the Land Army to differentiate it from an air force called the Air Army, notably France. In such countries, the army on its own retains its connotation of a land force in common usage. By convention, irregular military is understood in contrast to regular armies which grew slowly from personal bodyguards or elite militia, regular in this case refers to standardized doctrines, uniforms, organizations, etc. Regular military can also refer to full-time status, versus reserve or part-time personnel, other distinctions may separate statutory forces, from de facto non-statutory forces such as some guerrilla and revolutionary armies. Armies may also be expeditionary or fencible, india has had some of the earliest armies in the world. During the Indus Valley Civilization however, there was just a small force as they didnt fear invasion at the time. After the Aryan invasion, kingdoms and city-states started forming armies to protect their cities, one of the first known recorded battles, the Battle of the Ten Kings, happened when a Hindu king defeated an alliance of ten kings. During the Iron Age, the Maurya and Nanda Empires had large armies, in the Gupta age, large armies of longbowmen were recruited to fight off invading horse archer armies. Elephants, pikemen and cavalry were other featured troops, in Rajput times, the main piece of equipment was iron or chain-mail armour, a round shield, either a curved blade or a straight-sword, a chakra disc and a katar dagger. China has existed as a culture for thousands of years, the states of China raised armies for at least 1000 years before the Spring and Autumn Annals. By the Warring States period, the crossbow had been perfected enough to become a military secret, thus any political power of a state rested on the armies and their organization. China underwent political consolidation of the states of Han, Wei, Chu, Yan, Zhao and Qi, until by 221 BCE, Qin Shi Huang, sun Tzus The Art of War remains one of Chinas Seven Military Classics, even though it is two thousand years old. Since no political figure could exist without an army, measures were taken to only the most capable leaders could control the armies. Civil bureaucracies arose to control the power of the states
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16th Army (RSFSR)
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The Western Army engaged various local forces from the Baltic States, Belarus, Poland and Ukraine, and its actions contributed to starting the Polish–Soviet War of 1919–1920. After the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk, the newly established Russo-German border was controlled on the Russian side, by the so-called Western Section of Curtain Troops, the curtain was a sparse and heterogeneous set of detachments. The Western Curtain covered over 800 kilometres along the line Nevel–Polotsk–Senno–Orsha–Mogilev–Zhlobin–Gomel–Novy Oskol, eventually the Western Curtain was arranged into seven detachments with over 20,000 troops. This number was actually very small in relation to the area it covered, moreover, part of its manpower was moved to other bottlenecks of the Russian Civil War. It was created by the Revolutionary Military Council order #3/2 on September 11,1918, the Region extended from Petrograd to the Western edge of the Southern Front, and was commanded by Andrey Snesarev. After the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk was annulled by the Soviets on November 13,1918 the Western Defense Region was transformed into the Western Army, garrisoned in Smolensk. It was composed of, the Pskov–Lithuanian Infantry Division, the 17th Vitebsk Riflemen Division, by the end of 1918, the strength of the Western Army was around 19,000 men, but had little artillery or cavalry. Over the next few months the strength of the Army grew to 46,000 men and it was considered by the Soviet High Command to be one of the least important armies in that period. Immediately after its formation, on November 17,1918, the Western Army started an advance, following the retreat of the German forces, in the direction of Belarus. The purpose of the Russian westward offensive of 1918–1919 was to control over the territory abandoned by the German Army retreating from the Ober-Ost theater of operations. Later the Soviet Western Army engaged various self-defence and militia groups from Belarus, Lithuania, Poland, among scores of battles, the Battle of Bereza Kartuska on February 14 sparked the Polish–Soviet War
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