Kazimierz Michał Władysław Wiktor Pułaski of Ślepowron was a Polish nobleman and military commander, called, together with his counterpart Michael Kovats de Fabriczy, "the father of the American cavalry". Born in Warsaw and following in his father's footsteps, he became interested in politics at an early age and soon became involved in the military and the revolutionary affairs in the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth. Pulaski was one of the leading military commanders for the Bar Confederation and fought against Russian domination of the Commonwealth; when this uprising failed, he was driven into exile. Following a recommendation by Benjamin Franklin, Pulaski travelled to North America to help in the cause of the American Revolutionary War, he distinguished himself throughout the revolution, most notably when he saved the life of George Washington. Pulaski became a general in the Continental Army, created the Pulaski Cavalry Legion and reformed the American cavalry as a whole. At the Battle of Savannah, while leading a cavalry charge against British forces, he was fatally wounded by grapeshot, died shortly thereafter.

Pulaski is remembered as a hero who fought for independence and freedom in both Poland and the United States. Numerous places and events are named in his honor, he is commemorated by many works of art. Pulaski is one of only eight people to be awarded honorary United States citizenship. Pulaski was born on March 6, 1745, in the manor house of the Pułaski family in Poland. Casimir was the second eldest son of Marianna Zielińska and Józef Pułaski, an advocatus at the Crown Tribunal, the Starost of Warka, one of the town's most notable inhabitants, he was a brother of Franciszek Ksawery Antoni Pułaski. His family bore the Ślepowron coat of arms; the Pułaski family was Roman Catholic and early in his youth, Casimir Pulaski attended an elite college run by Theatines, a male religious order of the Catholic Church in Warsaw, but did not finish his education. There is some circumstantial evidence; when Gilbert du Motier, Marquis de Lafayette laid the cornerstone of the monument erected in Pulaski's honor in Savannah in 1824, a full Masonic ceremony took place with Richard T. Turner, High Priest of the Georgia chapter, conducting the ceremony.

Other sources claim. A Masonic Lodge in Chicago is named Casimir Pulaski Lodge, No.1167 and a brochure issued by them claims he obtained the degree of Master Mason on June 19, 1779, was buried with full Masonic honors. To date no surviving documents of Pulaski's actual membership have been found. In 1762, Pulaski started his military career as a page of Carl Christian Joseph of Saxony, Duke of Courland and vassal of the Polish king, he spent six months at the ducal court in Mitau, during which the court was interned in the palaces by the Russian forces occupying the area. He returned to Warsaw, his father gave him the village of Zezulińce in Podole. With his family, he took part in the 1764 election of Stanisław II Augustus. In December 1767, Pulaski and his father became involved with the Bar Confederation, which saw King Stanisław as a Russian puppet and sought to curtail Russian hegemony over the Commonwealth; the confederation was opposed by the Russian forces stationed in Poland. Pulaski recruited a unit and on February 29, 1768, signed the act of the confederation, thus declaring himself an official supporter of the movement.

On March 6, he commanded a chorągiew of cavalry. In March and April he agitated among the Polish military convincing some forces to join the Confederates, he fought his first battle on April 20 near Pohorełe. An engagement at Kaczanówka on April 28 resulted in a defeat. In early May he garrisoned Chmielnik, but was forced to retreat when allied reinforcements were defeated, he retreated to a monastery in Berdyczów, which he defended during a siege by royalist forces for over two weeks until June 16. He was forced to surrender and was taken captive by the Russians. On June 28, he was released in exchange for a pledge that he would not again take up arms with the Confederates, that he would lobby the Confederates to end hostilities. However, Pulaski considered the pledge to be non-binding, made a public declaration to that effect upon reaching a camp of the Confederates at the end of July. Agreeing to the pledge in the first place weakened his authority and popularity among the Confederates, his own father considered whether or not he should be court-martialed.

In 1769, Pulaski's unit was again besieged by numerically superior forces, this time in the old fortress of Okopy Świętej Trójcy, which has served as his base of operations since December the previous year. However, after a staunch defense, he was able to break the Russian siege. On April 7, he was made the regimentarz of the Kraków Voivodeship. In May and June he failed to take the town. Criticized by some of his fellow Confederates, Pulaski departed to Lithuania with his allies and a force of about 600 men on June 3. There, Pulaski attempted to incite a larger revolt against Russia; this excursion received international notice and gained him a reputation as the most effective m

The Popular Front of Estonia, introduced to the public by the Estonian politician Edgar Savisaar under the short-lived name Popular Front for the Support of Perestroika, was a political organisation in Estonia in the late 1980s and early 1990s. Edgar Savisaar introduced the idea of popular front during a TV show on 13 April 1988; the idea was developed through the year and The Estonian Popular Front was established on 1 October 1988 with a massively crowded congress which turned to a culmination of the first phase of the Singing Revolution. It was to a significant degree the precursor to the current Estonian Centre Party, although with a much broader base of popularity at the beginning; the Popular Front of Estonia was a major force in the Estonian independence movement that led to the re-establishment of the Republic of Estonia as a country independent from the Soviet Union. It was similar to the Popular Front of Latvia and the Sąjūdis movement in Lithuania and a number of Popular Fronts that were created simultaneously in many parts of the USSR.

The Baltic States were in a unique category among the constituent parts of the USSR in that they had been European parliamentary democracies in the interbellum and had been annexed by the Soviet Union in 1940. The Popular Front of Estonia was founded in 1988 by Edgar Savisaar. Savisaar initiated the founding in April 1988 in a live broadcast on Estonian TV, advocating support of Gorbachevian perestroika. Popular Front organised series of much-crowded and well-published events and actions which stressed on Estonian national pride but on democratic values as well. Huge amount of prints and newspapers were produced to popularise PF movement; the top-leaders and sub-leaders of PF were everyday guests in every kind of media to talk about several kind of problems and ideas. Popular Front of Estonia made ideas of independent Estonia possible for masses; the idea of independence had become a somewhat impossible and unbelievable dream for the majority of Estonians during decades under the Soviet Union.

At one point someway problematic character of Edgar Savisaar created growing opposition against PF among Estonians too. Those people formed their own smaller organisations which grew into important element of politics of independent Estonia next decade; the Popular Front of Estonia together with the Popular Front of Latvia and the Sąjūdis organised the Baltic Way mass "arm-in-arm" manifestation extending through three Baltic states on 23 August 1989 that marked 50th anniversary of 23 August 1939, when the Soviet Union and Nazi Germany signed the Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact, which resulted in the forcible incorporation of these three states into the Soviet Union and the loss of their independence. The front was opposed by the Intermovement that represented the pro-Soviet part of Estonia's ethnic Russian minority and other ethnic groups, settled in Estonia during the Soviet occupation period; the Popular Front was a supporter of perestroika, while the Intermovement was seen as opposed to Gorbachev's reforms.

As time went by, an ever-greater chasm developed between the initial thrust of the Popular Front, leading members of which at first advocated mere autonomy within a Soviet system that Gorbachev was trying to reform in a cautious way, the eventual context of the Estonian Popular Front, which came to stand for true independence, an idea supported by the rank and file. The Estonian Popular Front changed a great deal over time, until political parties came to replace such movements in Estonia during the early nineties; this rendered the Popular Front of Estonia an anachronism, Popular Front was dissolved in 1993. BPF Party Democratic Russia Estonian National Independence Party People's Movement of Ukraine Popular Front of Latvia Popular Front of Moldova Sąjūdis The Restoration of Estonian Independence Nationalism and the Transition to Democracy: The Post-Soviet Experience Soviet Union Cry Independence - Time magazine - August 21, 1989

Solidago missouriensis is a species of flowering plant in the aster family known by the common names Missouri goldenrod and prairie goldenrod. It is native to North America, where it is widespread across much of Canada, the United States, northern Mexico, it grows from British Columbia east to Manitoba, south as far as Sonora, Coahuila and Mississippi. Solidago missouriensis is variable in appearance, there are a number of varieties. In general, it is both, it reaches one meter in maximum height. The roots may reach 2 m deep in the soil; the rigid leaves are up to 30 centimeters long. The inflorescence is a branching panicle of many yellow flower heads at the top of the stem, sometimes with over 200 small heads; each head contains about 5-14 yellow ray florets a few millimeters long surrounding 6-20 disc florets. The fruit is an achene tipped with a pappus of bristles. Solidago missouriensis can be found in many types of habitat, it is common on the Great Plains. It can occur at high elevations, it colonizes disturbed soils.

During the Dust Bowl-era drought, when many of the native grasses and plants died, the goldenrod flourished in the dry, cleared soil. As the drought ended and the grasses returned, the goldenrod became less common, disappearing in many areas, it grows in soils turned over on roadsides and mining sites. The goldenrod is common in a fudge\number of regions, including tallgrass prairie in west-central Missouri, sandhills prairie in southeastern North Dakota, the Cypress Hills of southeastern Alberta, riparian habitat in northwestern Montana, the penang distribey of northern Wisconsin. Solidago missouriensis in the CalPhotos Photo Database, University of California, Berkeley The Nature Conservancy Photo of herbarium specimen at Missouri Botanical Garden, collected in 1839 near what is now Devil's Lake, North Dakota