1.
Vladimir Putin
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Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin is a Russian politician. Putin is the current President of the Russian Federation, holding the office since 7 May 2012 and he was Prime Minister from 1999 to 2000, President from 2000 to 2008, and again Prime Minister from 2008 to 2012. During his second term as Prime Minister, he was the Chairman of the ruling United Russia Party, born in Leningrad, Putin studied German in high school and speaks the language fluently. He studied Law at the Saint Petersburg State University, graduating in 1975, Putin was a KGB Foreign Intelligence Officer for 16 years, rising to the rank of Lieutenant Colonel before retiring in 1991 to enter politics in Saint Petersburg. He moved to Moscow in 1996 and joined President Boris Yeltsins administration, rising quickly through the ranks and becoming Acting President on 31 December 1999, when Yeltsin resigned. Putin won the subsequent 2000 Presidential election by a 53% to 30% margin, thus avoiding a runoff with his Communist Party of the Russian Federation opponent and he was re-elected President in 2004 with 72% of the vote. During Putins first presidency, the Russian economy grew for eight straight years, the growth was a result of the 2000s commodities boom, high oil prices, and prudent economic and fiscal policies. Because of constitutionally mandated term limits, Putin was ineligible to run for a third presidential term in 2008. The 2008 Presidential election was won by Dmitry Medvedev, who appointed Putin Prime Minister, in September 2011, after presidential terms were extended from four to six years, Putin announced he would seek a third term as president. He won the March 2012 Presidential election with 64% of the vote, under Putins leadership, Russia has scored poorly on both the Democracy index and the Corruption index. Putin has enjoyed high approval ratings during his career. In 2007, he was the Time Person of the Year, in 2015, he was #1 on the Times Most Influential People List. Forbes ranked him the Worlds Most Powerful Individual every year from 2013 to 2016, Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin was born on 7 October 1952 in Leningrad, Russian SFSR, Soviet Union, the youngest of three children of Vladimir Spiridonovich Putin and Maria Ivanovna Putina. His birth was preceded by the death of two brothers, Viktor and Albert, born in the mid-1930s, Albert died in infancy and Viktor died of diphtheria during the Siege of Leningrad. Putins mother was a worker and his father was a conscript in the Soviet Navy. Early in World War II, his father served in the battalion of the NKVD. Later, he was transferred to the army and was severely wounded in 1942. On 1 September 1960, Putin started at School No.193 at Baskov Lane and he was one of a few in the class of approximately 45 pupils who was not yet a member of the Young Pioneer organization
2.
Russian language
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Russian is an East Slavic language and an official language in Russia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan and many minor or unrecognised territories. Russian belongs to the family of Indo-European languages and is one of the four living members of the East Slavic languages, written examples of Old East Slavonic are attested from the 10th century and beyond. It is the most geographically widespread language of Eurasia and the most widely spoken of the Slavic languages and it is also the largest native language in Europe, with 144 million native speakers in Russia, Ukraine and Belarus. Russian is the eighth most spoken language in the world by number of native speakers, the language is one of the six official languages of the United Nations. Russian is also the second most widespread language on the Internet after English, Russian distinguishes between consonant phonemes with palatal secondary articulation and those without, the so-called soft and hard sounds. This distinction is found between pairs of almost all consonants and is one of the most distinguishing features of the language, another important aspect is the reduction of unstressed vowels. Russian is a Slavic language of the Indo-European family and it is a lineal descendant of the language used in Kievan Rus. From the point of view of the language, its closest relatives are Ukrainian, Belarusian, and Rusyn. An East Slavic Old Novgorod dialect, although vanished during the 15th or 16th century, is considered to have played a significant role in the formation of modern Russian. In the 19th century, the language was often called Great Russian to distinguish it from Belarusian, then called White Russian and Ukrainian, however, the East Slavic forms have tended to be used exclusively in the various dialects that are experiencing a rapid decline. In some cases, both the East Slavic and the Church Slavonic forms are in use, with different meanings. For details, see Russian phonology and History of the Russian language and it is also regarded by the United States Intelligence Community as a hard target language, due to both its difficulty to master for English speakers and its critical role in American world policy. The standard form of Russian is generally regarded as the modern Russian literary language, mikhail Lomonosov first compiled a normalizing grammar book in 1755, in 1783 the Russian Academys first explanatory Russian dictionary appeared. By the mid-20th century, such dialects were forced out with the introduction of the education system that was established by the Soviet government. Despite the formalization of Standard Russian, some nonstandard dialectal features are observed in colloquial speech. Thus, the Russian language is the 6th largest in the world by number of speakers, after English, Mandarin, Hindi/Urdu, Spanish, Russian is one of the six official languages of the United Nations. Education in Russian is still a choice for both Russian as a second language and native speakers in Russia as well as many of the former Soviet republics. Russian is still seen as an important language for children to learn in most of the former Soviet republics, samuel P. Huntington wrote in the Clash of Civilizations, During the heyday of the Soviet Union, Russian was the lingua franca from Prague to Hanoi
3.
Shirshov Institute of Oceanology
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The Shirshov Institute of Oceanology in Moscow, is the premier research institution for ocean and earth science in Russia, established in 1946. It is part of the Russian Academy of Sciences, the institute is named after Pyotr Shirshov, who founded it in 1946. Amongst others, Andrei Monin served as director, RV Akademik Ioffe RV Akademik Sergey Vavilov RV Akademik Mstislav Keldysh RV Professor Shtokman RV Rift RV Akvanaft MIR RV Vityaz - not active since 1979, now a museum in Kaliningrad. Nikolai M. Knipovich Polar Research Institute of Marine Fisheries and Oceanography List of Russian oceanographers Official website
4.
Russian Academy of Sciences
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Headquartered in Moscow, the Academy is considered a civil, self-governed, non-commercial organization chartered by the Government of Russia. It combines the members of RAS and scientists employed by institutions, the Academy currently includes around 650 institutions and 55,000 scientific researchers. There are three types of membership in the RAS, full members, corresponding members, and foreign members, Academicians and corresponding members must be citizens of the Russian Federation when elected. However, some academicians and corresponding members were elected before the collapse of the USSR and are now citizens of other countries, Members of RAS are elected based on their scientific contributions – election to membership is considered very prestigious. In the years 2005–2012, the academy had approximately 500 full and 700 corresponding members, but in 2013, after the Russian Academy of Agricultural Sciences and the Russian Academy of Medical Sciences became incorporated into the RAS, a number of the RAS members accordingly increased. As of November 2016, after the last elections, there were 944 full members and 1159 corresponding members in the renewed Russian Academy of Sciences, the RAS consists of 13 specialized scientific divisions, three territorial divisions, sometimes called branches, and 15 regional scientific centers. The Academy has numerous councils, committees, and commissions, all organized for different purposes, Siberian Division of the Russian Academy of Sciences The Siberian Division was established in 1957, with Mikhail Lavrentyev as founding chairman. Research centers are in Novosibirsk, Tomsk, Krasnoyarsk, Irkutsk, Yakutsk, Ulan-Ude, Kemerovo, Tyumen, as of 2005, the Division employed over 33,000 employees,58 of whom were members of the Academy. Ural Division of the Russian Academy of Sciences The Ural Division was established in 1932, research centers are in Yekaterinburg, Perm, Cheliabinsk, Izhevsk, Orenburg, Ufa and Syktyvkar. As of 2007, the Division employed 3,600 scientists,590 full professors,31 full members, started with just three members, The RSSI now has 3,100 members, including 57 from the largest research institutions. Russian universities and technical institutes are not under the supervision of the RAS, the Academy is also increasing its presence in the educational area. In 1990 the Higher Chemical College of the Russian Academy of Sciences was founded, the Academy gives out a number of different prizes, medals and awards among which, Lomonosov Gold Medal Lobachevsky Prize Demidov Prize Kurchatov Medal Pushkin Prize S. V. Expeditions to explore parts of the country had Academy scientists as their leaders or most active participants. A separate organization, called the Russian Academy, was created in 1783 to work on the study of the Russian language, presided over by Princess Yekaterina Dashkova, the Russian Academy was engaged in compiling the six-volume Academic Dictionary of the Russian Language. The Russian Academy was merged into the Imperial Saint Petersburg Academy of Sciences in 1841, in December 1917, Sergey Fedorovich Oldenburg, a leading ethnographer and political activist in the Kadet party, met with Vladimir Lenin to discuss the future of the Academy. They agreed that the expertise of the Academy would be applied to addressing questions of state construction, in 1925 the Soviet government recognized the Russian Academy of Sciences as the highest all-Union scientific institution and renamed it the Academy of Sciences of the USSR. The Soviet Sciences Academy would be affected like all universities by the rules imposed particularly those pertaining to censorship, the Soviet Science Academy ended up with a leader of the philosophy department who was placed there simply to keep the man out of trouble. The government decided to not execute or send the famous writer to the gulag because he had won the Stalin award, doing this would have discredited the Stalin award and thus Stalin the leader of the Communist party himself
5.
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
6.
Mir (submersible)
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Mir is a self-propelled Deep Submergence Vehicle. The project was developed by the USSR Academy of Sciences along with Design Bureau Lazurith. Later two vehicles were ordered from Finland, the Mir 1 and Mir 2, delivered in 1987, were designed and built by the Finnish company Rauma-Repolas Oceanics subsidiary. The project was carried out under the supervision of constructors and engineers of the Shirshov Institute of Oceanology, the vessels are designed to be used for scientific research. They might also be used to assist in rescue operations. The carrier and command centre of both Mir submersibles is the R/V Akademik Mstislav Keldysh, the two Mir units are operated by the Russian Academy of Sciences. The Mir submersibles can dive to a depth of 6,000 metres. Traditionally, the sphere of a deep sea submersible is manufactured of titanium plates that are welded together. On Mir, the sphere is made of a maraging steel alloy that has ten percent better strength/weight ratio than titanium. This alloy contains about 30% cobalt and smaller amounts of nickel, chrome, two hemispheres were made by casting and machining, and then bolted together, thus avoiding welded joints. The resulting construction is close to the density of water, thus making it easier to move in different depths, additional buoyancy is provided by 8 cubic metres of syntactic foam. Unlike other Deep Submergence Vehicles that use iron ballast to reach the ocean floor, the Mir submersibles are 7.8 m long,3.6 m wide,3.0 m high, and weighs 18,600 kg. The personnel spheres walls are 5 cm thick, and the diameter of the working area is 2.1 m. Three viewports are provided, the port is 20 cm diameter. Power is provided by NiCad batteries of 100 kWh capacity, electric motors drive hydraulic pumps to actuate hydraulic manipulators and 3 propulsors. The aft hydraulic propulsor is rated at 9 kW and 2 side propulsors are rated at 2.5 kW each, maximum underwater speed is 5 knots. Longitudinal trim is controlled using 2 spherical water ballast tanks, fore, water can be forced out of these tanks as required by using compressed air. VHF radio is used to communication with the surface
7.
Deep-submergence vehicle
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A deep-submergence vehicle is a deep-diving manned submarine that is self-propelled. The term DSV is generally one used by the United States Navy, dSRVs are equipped with docking chambers to allow personnel ingress and egress via a manhole. Because of these difficulties, the use of integrated crew escape capsules, detachable conning towers, dSRVs that remain in use are primarily relegated to clandestine missions and undersea military equipment maintenance. The rapid development of safe, cost-saving ROV technology has rendered some DSVs obsolete. In a DSV/DSRV, the compartment and the ballast tank functionality is incorporated into a single structure to afford more habitable space. Most DSV/DSRV vehicles are powered by traditional electric battery propulsion and have limited endurance. Plans have been made to equip DSVs with LOX Stirling engines but none have been realized so far due to cost, all DSVs are dependent upon a surface support ship or a mother submarine, that can piggyback or tow them to the scene of operations. Some DSRV vessels are air transportable in very large cargo planes to speed up deployment in case of emergency rescue missions. FNRS-2 – the predecessor to Trieste FNRS-3 – contemporary of Trieste I DSV-0 Trieste – the X-1 Trieste bathyscaphe has reached Challenger Deep, dSV-1 X-2 Trieste II – an updated bathyscathe design, participated in clandestine missions, it was retired in 1984. Alvin has a maximum depth capability of 4,500 metres and operates from R/V Atlantis, the NSF has committed to the construction of a replacement sub with enhanced capabilities and 6, 500-metre depth capability to replace Alvin, which will be retired upon its completion. DSV-2 Alvin – a deep diving sub, has a 4, 500-metre depth capability, aluminaut – a DSV made completely of aluminum by the Reynolds Metals Aluminum Company, for the US Navy, once held the submarine deep diving record. Deepsea Challenger – a DSV made by the Acheron Project Pty Ltd, has reached Challenger Deep, Priz – a DSRV class of five ships built by the USSR and Russia. The titanium-hulled Priz class are capable of diving to 1,000 metres and these mini-submarines can ferry up to 20 people for very brief periods of time or operate submerged for two to three days with a regular crew of three to four specialists. In early 2005, the Russian AS-28 Priz vessel was trapped undersea, mir – a strictly civilian class of two DSVs which were manufactured in Finland for the USSR. These bathyscaphe-derived vessels can carry three people down to depths of 6,000 metres, konsul – a new class of Russian military DSVs, currently undergoing final acceptance trials before the official commissioning into the Navy. Nautile – a DSV owned by Ifremer, the French Research Institute for Exploitation of the Sea, the titanium-hulled Nautile is capable of diving to 6,000 metres. DSV Shinkai – JAMSTEC operates a DSV-series called Shinkai, the latest DSV is Shinkai 6500 which can submerge to 6,500 metres with three crew members. JAMSTEC was operating a ROV called Kaiko, which was able to submerge to 11,000 metres, a total of 10 were built and are representative of late 1960s deep-ocean submersible design
8.
RMS Titanic
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Of the 2,224 passengers and crew aboard, more than 1,500 died, making it one of the deadliest commercial peacetime maritime disasters in modern history. Thomas Andrews, her architect, died in the disaster, the first class accommodation was designed to be the pinnacle of comfort and luxury, with an on-board gymnasium, swimming pool, libraries, high-class restaurants and opulent cabins. A high-power radiotelegraph transmitter was available for sending passenger marconigrams and for the operational use. Titanic only carried enough lifeboats for 1,178 people—slightly more than half of the number on board, after leaving Southampton on 10 April 1912, Titanic called at Cherbourg in France and Queenstown in Ireland before heading west to New York. On 14 April, four days into the crossing and about 375 miles south of Newfoundland, the collision caused the ships hull plates to buckle inwards along her starboard side and opened five of her sixteen watertight compartments to the sea, she could only survive four flooding. Meanwhile, passengers and some members were evacuated in lifeboats. A disproportionate number of men were left aboard because of a women and children first protocol for loading lifeboats, at 2,20 a. m. she broke apart and foundered—with well over one thousand people still aboard. Just under two hours after Titanic sank, the Cunard liner RMS Carpathia arrived at the scene, where she brought aboard an estimated 705 survivors. The disaster was greeted with shock and outrage at the huge loss of life. Public inquiries in Britain and the United States led to improvements in maritime safety. One of their most important legacies was the establishment in 1914 of the International Convention for the Safety of Life at Sea, which still governs maritime safety today. Additionally, several new regulations were passed around the world in an effort to learn from the many missteps in wireless communications—which could have saved many more passengers. The wreck of Titanic, first discovered over 70 years after the sinking, remains on the seabed, since her discovery in 1985, thousands of artifacts have been recovered and put on display at museums around the world. Titanic has become one of the most famous ships in history, her memory is kept alive by numerous works of culture, including books, folk songs, films, exhibits. Titanic is the second largest ocean liner wreck in the world, only beaten by her sister HMHS Britannic, the name Titanic was derived from Greek mythology and meant gigantic. They were by far the largest vessels of the British shipping company White Star Lines fleet, Teutonic was replaced by Olympic while Majestic was replaced by Titanic. Majestic would be back into her old spot on White Stars New York service after Titanics loss. The ships were constructed by the Belfast shipbuilders Harland and Wolff, cost considerations were relatively low on the agenda and Harland and Wolff was authorised to spend what it needed on the ships, plus a five percent profit margin
9.
German battleship Bismarck
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Bismarck was the first of two Bismarck-class battleships built for Nazi Germanys Kriegsmarine. Work was completed in August 1940, when she was commissioned into the German fleet, Bismarck and her sister ship Tirpitz were the largest battleships ever built by Germany, and two of the largest built by any European power. In the course of the warships eight-month career under its commanding officer, Captain Ernst Lindemann, Bismarck conducted only one offensive operation, in May 1941. The ship, along with the heavy cruiser Prinz Eugen, was to break into the Atlantic Ocean, the two ships were detected several times off Scandinavia, and British naval units were deployed to block their route. At the Battle of the Denmark Strait, the iconic battlecruiser HMS Hood initially engaged Prinz Eugen, probably by mistake, in the ensuing battle Hood was destroyed by the combined fire of Bismarck and Prinz Eugen, who then damaged Prince of Wales and forced her retreat. Bismarck suffered sufficient damage from three hits to force an end to the raiding mission, the destruction of Hood spurred a relentless pursuit by the Royal Navy involving dozens of warships. Most experts agree that the damage would have caused her to sink eventually. The wreck was located in June 1989 by Robert Ballard, and has since been surveyed by several other expeditions. Bismarck was ordered under the name Ersatz Hannover, a replacement for the old pre-dreadnought SMS Hannover, under contract F, the contract was awarded to the Blohm & Voss shipyard in Hamburg, where the keel was laid on 1 July 1936 at Helgen IX. The ship was launched on 14 February 1939 and during the ceremonies was christened by Dorothee von Löwenfeld, granddaughter of Chancellor Otto von Bismarck. Adolf Hitler made the christening speech, fitting-out work followed the launch, during which time the original straight stem was replaced with a raked Atlantic bow similar to those of the Scharnhorst-class battleships. Bismarck was commissioned into the fleet on 24 August 1940 for sea trials, kapitän zur See Ernst Lindemann took command of the ship at the time of commissioning. Bismarck displaced 41,700 t as built and 50,300 t fully loaded, with a length of 251 m, a beam of 36 m. The battleship was Germanys largest warship, and displaced more than any other European battleship, with the exception of HMS Vanguard, the ship had a cruising range of 8,870 nautical miles at 19 knots. Bismarck was equipped with three FuMO23 search radar sets, mounted on the forward and stern rangefinders and foretop, the standard crew numbered 103 officers and 1,962 enlisted men. The crew was divided into divisions of between 180 and 220 men. The first six divisions were assigned to the armament, divisions one to four for the main and secondary batteries and five. The seventh division consisted of specialists, including cooks and carpenters, the radio operators, signalmen, and quartermasters were assigned to the ninth division
