1.
Kremenchuk
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Kremenchuk, an important industrial city in central Ukraine, stands on the banks of the Dnieper River. Kremenchuk is the center of the Kremenchuk Raion in the Poltava Oblast. In 2015, the city had a population of 225,216 people, the latter concern, one of the oldest railway repair and rail-car building factories in Eastern Europe, dates back to 1869. Kremenchuk was supposedly founded in 1571, the name Kremenchuk is explained as deriving from the word kremen - chert because the city is located on a giant chert plate. An alternative explanation says that Kremenchuk is the Turkish for small fortress, in 1625, at Lake Kurukove in Kremenchuk, the Treaty of Kurukove was signed between the Cossacks and the Poles. During World War II, Kremenchuk suffered heavily under Nazi occupation and it was occupied from September 15,1941 to September 29,1943. More than 90% of the buildings were leveled over the course of the war. 29 September, the day when the city was liberated from the Nazis in 1943, is celebrated in Kremenchuk as the City Day. Despite a remarkable recovery and a healthier economy, Kremenchuk lacks much of the architectural charm and distinctly Ukrainian character of its sister city. During the Cold War, Kremenchuk became the headquarters for the 43rd Rocket Division of the 43rd Army of the Soviet Strategic Rocket Forces, the division was equipped with R-12 Dvina intercontinental ballistic missiles. Oleh Babayev, the mayor of Kremenchuk was assassinated on July 26,2014, oleh Babayev opposed separatism and promoted national unity, prior to becoming mayor he was a member of the Batkivshchyna political party which opposed Victor Yanukovich. His political views and Kremenchuks large industrial base may have been the motivation for the attack, during the 2014 pro-Russian unrest in Ukraine security at the Kremenchuk Reservoir was heightened as it was seen as a possible target for saboteurs. Kremenchuks Ukrtatnafta oil refinery is the largest in Ukraine and the one operating since the beginning of the conflict with Russia that left refineries in the Donbass inactive. Kremenchuk is the center of the Poltava Oblast and one of the leading industrial centers of Ukraine. It contributes about 7% of the economy and accounts for more than 50% of the industrial output in the Poltava Oblast. The light industries of the city include tobacco, confectionery, a factory as well as milk. Kremenchuk is one of the most important railway junctions in Central Ukraine, Kremenchuk is home to HK Kremenchuk ice hockey team who compete in the Ukrainian Championship and the FC Kremin football club. Emmanuel Mané-Katz, artist Leo Ornstein, composer and pianist Avraham Shlonsky, Israeli poet and editor Dimitri Tiomkin, film composer Anton Makarenko, educator, sergey Vashchenko, Balalaika virtuoso and conductor Vyacheslav Senchenko, World welterweight boxing champion
2.
Poltava Governorate
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The Poltava Governorate covered a total area of 49,365 km², and had a population of 2,778,151 according to the 1897 Russian Empire census. In 1914, the population was 2,794,727, after the formation of the Ukrainian SSR, the territory was wholly included into the new Soviet Republic. However, on Third of June 1925 the guberniya was liquidated and replaced by five okrugs, Russian Census of 1897, the cities of more than 10,000 people. In bold are the cities of over 50,000, in bold are languages spoken by more people than the state language. By the Imperial census of 1897, in bold are religions with more members than the Eastern Orthodox. The major religion in the region that was virtually the state religion was the Eastern Orthodox with some population following Judaism, other religions in the governorate were much less common
3.
Russian Empire
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The Russian Empire was a state that existed from 1721 until it was overthrown by the short-lived February Revolution in 1917. One of the largest empires in history, stretching over three continents, the Russian Empire was surpassed in landmass only by the British and Mongol empires. The rise of the Russian Empire happened in association with the decline of neighboring powers, the Swedish Empire, the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth, Persia. It played a role in 1812–14 in defeating Napoleons ambitions to control Europe. The House of Romanov ruled the Russian Empire from 1721 until 1762, and its German-descended cadet branch, with 125.6 million subjects registered by the 1897 census, it had the third-largest population in the world at the time, after Qing China and India. Like all empires, it included a large disparity in terms of economics, ethnicity, there were numerous dissident elements, who launched numerous rebellions and assassination attempts, they were closely watched by the secret police, with thousands exiled to Siberia. Economically, the empire had an agricultural base, with low productivity on large estates worked by serfs. The economy slowly industrialized with the help of foreign investments in railways, the land was ruled by a nobility from the 10th through the 17th centuries, and subsequently by an emperor. Tsar Ivan III laid the groundwork for the empire that later emerged and he tripled the territory of his state, ended the dominance of the Golden Horde, renovated the Moscow Kremlin, and laid the foundations of the Russian state. Tsar Peter the Great fought numerous wars and expanded an already huge empire into a major European power, Catherine the Great presided over a golden age. She expanded the state by conquest, colonization and diplomacy, continuing Peter the Greats policy of modernisation along West European lines, Tsar Alexander II promoted numerous reforms, most dramatically the emancipation of all 23 million serfs in 1861. His policy in Eastern Europe involved protecting the Orthodox Christians under the rule of the Ottoman Empire and that connection by 1914 led to Russias entry into the First World War on the side of France, Britain, and Serbia, against the German, Austrian and Ottoman empires. The Russian Empire functioned as a monarchy until the Revolution of 1905. The empire collapsed during the February Revolution of 1917, largely as a result of failures in its participation in the First World War. Perhaps the latter was done to make Europe recognize Russia as more of a European country, Poland was divided in the 1790-1815 era, with much of the land and population going to Russia. Most of the 19th century growth came from adding territory in Asia, Peter I the Great introduced autocracy in Russia and played a major role in introducing his country to the European state system. However, this vast land had a population of 14 million, grain yields trailed behind those of agriculture in the West, compelling nearly the entire population to farm. Only a small percentage lived in towns, the class of kholops, close to the one of slavery, remained a major institution in Russia until 1723, when Peter I converted household kholops into house serfs, thus including them in poll taxation
4.
London
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London /ˈlʌndən/ is the capital and most populous city of England and the United Kingdom. Standing on the River Thames in the south east of the island of Great Britain and it was founded by the Romans, who named it Londinium. Londons ancient core, the City of London, largely retains its 1. 12-square-mile medieval boundaries. London is a global city in the arts, commerce, education, entertainment, fashion, finance, healthcare, media, professional services, research and development, tourism. It is crowned as the worlds largest financial centre and has the fifth- or sixth-largest metropolitan area GDP in the world, London is a world cultural capital. It is the worlds most-visited city as measured by international arrivals and has the worlds largest city airport system measured by passenger traffic, London is the worlds leading investment destination, hosting more international retailers and ultra high-net-worth individuals than any other city. Londons universities form the largest concentration of education institutes in Europe. In 2012, London became the first city to have hosted the modern Summer Olympic Games three times, London has a diverse range of people and cultures, and more than 300 languages are spoken in the region. Its estimated mid-2015 municipal population was 8,673,713, the largest of any city in the European Union, Londons urban area is the second most populous in the EU, after Paris, with 9,787,426 inhabitants at the 2011 census. The citys metropolitan area is the most populous in the EU with 13,879,757 inhabitants, the city-region therefore has a similar land area and population to that of the New York metropolitan area. London was the worlds most populous city from around 1831 to 1925, Other famous landmarks include Buckingham Palace, the London Eye, Piccadilly Circus, St Pauls Cathedral, Tower Bridge, Trafalgar Square, and The Shard. The London Underground is the oldest underground railway network in the world, the etymology of London is uncertain. It is an ancient name, found in sources from the 2nd century and it is recorded c.121 as Londinium, which points to Romano-British origin, and hand-written Roman tablets recovered in the city originating from AD 65/70-80 include the word Londinio. The earliest attempted explanation, now disregarded, is attributed to Geoffrey of Monmouth in Historia Regum Britanniae and this had it that the name originated from a supposed King Lud, who had allegedly taken over the city and named it Kaerlud. From 1898, it was accepted that the name was of Celtic origin and meant place belonging to a man called *Londinos. The ultimate difficulty lies in reconciling the Latin form Londinium with the modern Welsh Llundain, which should demand a form *lōndinion, from earlier *loundiniom. The possibility cannot be ruled out that the Welsh name was borrowed back in from English at a later date, and thus cannot be used as a basis from which to reconstruct the original name. Until 1889, the name London officially applied only to the City of London, two recent discoveries indicate probable very early settlements near the Thames in the London area
5.
Albertina Rasch
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Albertina Rasch was a naturalized American dancer and choreographer. Rasch was born in 1891, in Vienna, to a family of Polish Jewish descent and she studied at the Vienna State Opera Ballet school and became leading ballerina at the New York Hippodrome in 1911. Rasch also helped establish Cole Porters Begin the Beguine as a standard by choreographing it to an ethnic dance in Jubilee. Additional Broadway credits include The Three Musketeers, Show Girl, The Bohemian Girl, The Great Waltz, footage of Rasch filmed for the unfinished Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer musical The March of Time was used in the MGM film Broadway to Hollywood with Frank Morgan and Alice Brady. MGM also reused her Chinese Ballet from Children of Pleasure in the short film Roast Beef, Rasch was married for many years to composer Dimitri Tiomkin. Following a long illness, she died at age 76 in Woodland Hills, Albertina Rasch at the Internet Broadway Database Albertina Rasch at the Internet Movie Database
6.
Russia
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Russia, also officially the Russian Federation, is a country in Eurasia. The European western part of the country is more populated and urbanised than the eastern. Russias capital Moscow is one of the largest cities in the world, other urban centers include Saint Petersburg, Novosibirsk, Yekaterinburg, Nizhny Novgorod. Extending across the entirety of Northern Asia and much of Eastern Europe, Russia spans eleven time zones and incorporates a range of environments. It shares maritime borders with Japan by the Sea of Okhotsk, the East Slavs emerged as a recognizable group in Europe between the 3rd and 8th centuries AD. Founded and ruled by a Varangian warrior elite and their descendants, in 988 it adopted Orthodox Christianity from the Byzantine Empire, beginning the synthesis of Byzantine and Slavic cultures that defined Russian culture for the next millennium. Rus ultimately disintegrated into a number of states, most of the Rus lands were overrun by the Mongol invasion. The Soviet Union played a role in the Allied victory in World War II. The Soviet era saw some of the most significant technological achievements of the 20th century, including the worlds first human-made satellite and the launching of the first humans in space. By the end of 1990, the Soviet Union had the second largest economy, largest standing military in the world. It is governed as a federal semi-presidential republic, the Russian economy ranks as the twelfth largest by nominal GDP and sixth largest by purchasing power parity in 2015. Russias extensive mineral and energy resources are the largest such reserves in the world, making it one of the producers of oil. The country is one of the five recognized nuclear weapons states and possesses the largest stockpile of weapons of mass destruction, Russia is a great power as well as a regional power and has been characterised as a potential superpower. The name Russia is derived from Rus, a state populated mostly by the East Slavs. However, this name became more prominent in the later history, and the country typically was called by its inhabitants Русская Земля. In order to distinguish this state from other states derived from it, it is denoted as Kievan Rus by modern historiography, an old Latin version of the name Rus was Ruthenia, mostly applied to the western and southern regions of Rus that were adjacent to Catholic Europe. The current name of the country, Россия, comes from the Byzantine Greek designation of the Kievan Rus, the standard way to refer to citizens of Russia is Russians in English and rossiyane in Russian. There are two Russian words which are translated into English as Russians
7.
Saint Petersburg
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Saint Petersburg is Russias second-largest city after Moscow, with five million inhabitants in 2012, and an important Russian port on the Baltic Sea. It is politically incorporated as a federal subject, situated on the Neva River, at the head of the Gulf of Finland on the Baltic Sea, it was founded by Tsar Peter the Great on May 271703. In 1914, the name was changed from Saint Petersburg to Petrograd, in 1924 to Leningrad, between 1713 and 1728 and 1732–1918, Saint Petersburg was the capital of imperial Russia. In 1918, the government bodies moved to Moscow. Saint Petersburg is one of the cities of Russia, as well as its cultural capital. The Historic Centre of Saint Petersburg and Related Groups of Monuments constitute a UNESCO World Heritage Site, Saint Petersburg is home to The Hermitage, one of the largest art museums in the world. A large number of consulates, international corporations, banks. Swedish colonists built Nyenskans, a fortress, at the mouth of the Neva River in 1611, in a then called Ingermanland. A small town called Nyen grew up around it, Peter the Great was interested in seafaring and maritime affairs, and he intended to have Russia gain a seaport in order to be able to trade with other maritime nations. He needed a better seaport than Arkhangelsk, which was on the White Sea to the north, on May 1703121703, during the Great Northern War, Peter the Great captured Nyenskans, and soon replaced the fortress. On May 271703, closer to the estuary 5 km inland from the gulf), on Zayachy Island, he laid down the Peter and Paul Fortress, which became the first brick and stone building of the new city. The city was built by conscripted peasants from all over Russia, tens of thousands of serfs died building the city. Later, the city became the centre of the Saint Petersburg Governorate, Peter moved the capital from Moscow to Saint Petersburg in 1712,9 years before the Treaty of Nystad of 1721 ended the war, he referred to Saint Petersburg as the capital as early as 1704. During its first few years, the city developed around Trinity Square on the bank of the Neva, near the Peter. However, Saint Petersburg soon started to be built out according to a plan, by 1716 the Swiss Italian Domenico Trezzini had elaborated a project whereby the city centre would be located on Vasilyevsky Island and shaped by a rectangular grid of canals. The project was not completed, but is evident in the layout of the streets, in 1716, Peter the Great appointed French Jean-Baptiste Alexandre Le Blond as the chief architect of Saint Petersburg. In 1724 the Academy of Sciences, University and Academic Gymnasium were established in Saint Petersburg by Peter the Great, in 1725, Peter died at the age of fifty-two. His endeavours to modernize Russia had met opposition from the Russian nobility—resulting in several attempts on his life
8.
October Revolution
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It took place with an armed insurrection in Petrograd on 25 October 1917. During this time, urban workers began to organize into councils wherein revolutionaries criticized the provisional government and this immediately initiated the establishment of the Russian Socialist Federative Soviet Republic, the worlds first self-proclaimed socialist state. The revolution was led by the Bolsheviks, who used their influence in the Petrograd Soviet to organize the armed forces, Bolshevik Red Guards forces under the Military Revolutionary Committee began the takeover of government buildings on 24 October 1917. The following day, the Winter Palace, was captured, the long-awaited Constituent Assembly elections were held on 12 November 1917. The Bolsheviks only won 175 seats in the 715-seat legislative body, coming in second behind the Socialist Revolutionary party, the Constituent Assembly was to first meet on 28 November 1917, but its convocation was delayed until 5 January 1918 by the Bolsheviks. On its first and only day in session, the body rejected Soviet decrees on peace and land, as the revolution was not universally recognized, there followed the struggles of the Russian Civil War and the creation of the Soviet Union in 1922. At first, the event was referred to as the October coup or the Uprising of 25th, in Russian, however, переворот has a similar meaning to revolution and also means upheaval or overturn, so coup is not necessarily the correct translation. With time, the term October Revolution came into use and it is also known as the November Revolution having occurred in November according to the Gregorian Calendar. The Great October Socialist Revolution was the name for the October Revolution in the Soviet Union after the 10th anniversary of the Revolution in 1927. The February Revolution had toppled Tsar Nicolas II of Russia, however, the provisional government was weak and riven by internal dissension. It continued to wage World War I, which became increasingly unpopular, a nationwide crisis developed in Russia, affecting social, economic, and political relations. Disorder in industry and transport had intensified, and difficulties in obtaining provisions had increased, gross industrial production in 1917 had decreased by over 36% from what it had been in 1914. In the autumn, as much as 50% of all enterprises were closed down in the Urals, the Donbas, at the same time, the cost of living increased sharply. Real wages fell about 50% from what they had been in 1913, russias national debt in October 1917 had risen to 50 billion rubles. Of this, debts to foreign governments constituted more than 11 billion rubles, the country faced the threat of financial bankruptcy. In these months alone, more than a million took part in strikes. Workers established control over production and distribution in many factories and plants in a social revolution, by October 1917, there had been over 4,000 peasant uprisings against landowners. When the Provisional Government sent punitive detachments, it only enraged the peasants
9.
Berlin
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Berlin is the capital and the largest city of Germany as well as one of its constituent 16 states. With a population of approximately 3.5 million, Berlin is the second most populous city proper, due to its location in the European Plain, Berlin is influenced by a temperate seasonal climate. Around one-third of the area is composed of forests, parks, gardens, rivers. Berlin in the 1920s was the third largest municipality in the world, following German reunification in 1990, Berlin once again became the capital of all-Germany. Berlin is a city of culture, politics, media. Its economy is based on high-tech firms and the sector, encompassing a diverse range of creative industries, research facilities, media corporations. Berlin serves as a hub for air and rail traffic and has a highly complex public transportation network. The metropolis is a popular tourist destination, significant industries also include IT, pharmaceuticals, biomedical engineering, clean tech, biotechnology, construction and electronics. Modern Berlin is home to world renowned universities, orchestras, museums and its urban setting has made it a sought-after location for international film productions. The city is known for its festivals, diverse architecture, nightlife, contemporary arts. Since 2000 Berlin has seen the emergence of a cosmopolitan entrepreneurial scene, the name Berlin has its roots in the language of West Slavic inhabitants of the area of todays Berlin, and may be related to the Old Polabian stem berl-/birl-. All German place names ending on -ow, -itz and -in, since the Ber- at the beginning sounds like the German word Bär, a bear appears in the coat of arms of the city. It is therefore a canting arm, the first written records of towns in the area of present-day Berlin date from the late 12th century. Spandau is first mentioned in 1197 and Köpenick in 1209, although these areas did not join Berlin until 1920, the central part of Berlin can be traced back to two towns. Cölln on the Fischerinsel is first mentioned in a 1237 document,1237 is considered the founding date of the city. The two towns over time formed close economic and social ties, and profited from the right on the two important trade routes Via Imperii and from Bruges to Novgorod. In 1307, they formed an alliance with a common external policy, in 1415 Frederick I became the elector of the Margraviate of Brandenburg, which he ruled until 1440. In 1443 Frederick II Irontooth started the construction of a new palace in the twin city Berlin-Cölln
10.
New York City
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The City of New York, often called New York City or simply New York, is the most populous city in the United States. With an estimated 2015 population of 8,550,405 distributed over an area of about 302.6 square miles. Located at the tip of the state of New York. Home to the headquarters of the United Nations, New York is an important center for international diplomacy and has described as the cultural and financial capital of the world. Situated on one of the worlds largest natural harbors, New York City consists of five boroughs, the five boroughs – Brooklyn, Queens, Manhattan, The Bronx, and Staten Island – were consolidated into a single city in 1898. In 2013, the MSA produced a gross metropolitan product of nearly US$1.39 trillion, in 2012, the CSA generated a GMP of over US$1.55 trillion. NYCs MSA and CSA GDP are higher than all but 11 and 12 countries, New York City traces its origin to its 1624 founding in Lower Manhattan as a trading post by colonists of the Dutch Republic and was named New Amsterdam in 1626. The city and its surroundings came under English control in 1664 and were renamed New York after King Charles II of England granted the lands to his brother, New York served as the capital of the United States from 1785 until 1790. It has been the countrys largest city since 1790, the Statue of Liberty greeted millions of immigrants as they came to the Americas by ship in the late 19th and early 20th centuries and is a symbol of the United States and its democracy. In the 21st century, New York has emerged as a node of creativity and entrepreneurship, social tolerance. Several sources have ranked New York the most photographed city in the world, the names of many of the citys bridges, tapered skyscrapers, and parks are known around the world. Manhattans real estate market is among the most expensive in the world, Manhattans Chinatown incorporates the highest concentration of Chinese people in the Western Hemisphere, with multiple signature Chinatowns developing across the city. Providing continuous 24/7 service, the New York City Subway is one of the most extensive metro systems worldwide, with 472 stations in operation. Over 120 colleges and universities are located in New York City, including Columbia University, New York University, and Rockefeller University, during the Wisconsinan glaciation, the New York City region was situated at the edge of a large ice sheet over 1,000 feet in depth. The ice sheet scraped away large amounts of soil, leaving the bedrock that serves as the foundation for much of New York City today. Later on, movement of the ice sheet would contribute to the separation of what are now Long Island and Staten Island. The first documented visit by a European was in 1524 by Giovanni da Verrazzano, a Florentine explorer in the service of the French crown and he claimed the area for France and named it Nouvelle Angoulême. Heavy ice kept him from further exploration, and he returned to Spain in August and he proceeded to sail up what the Dutch would name the North River, named first by Hudson as the Mauritius after Maurice, Prince of Orange
11.
Wall Street Crash of 1929
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The crash, which followed the London Stock Exchanges crash of September, signaled the beginning of the 12-year Great Depression that affected all Western industrialized countries. The Roaring Twenties, the decade that followed World War I and led to the crash, was a time of wealth, while the American cities prospered, the overproduction of agricultural produce created widespread financial despair among American farmers throughout the decade. This would later be blamed as one of the key factors that led to the 1929 stock market crash, despite the dangers of speculation, many believed that the stock market would continue to rise forever. On March 25,1929, after the Federal Reserve warned of excessive speculation, two days later, banker Charles E. Mitchell announced his company the National City Bank would provide $25 million in credit to stop the markets slide. Mitchells move brought a halt to the financial crisis and call money declined from 20 to 8 percent. Despite all these economic trouble signs and the breaks in March and May 1929, stocks resumed their advance in June. The market had been on a run that saw the Dow Jones Industrial Average increase in value tenfold. Shortly before the crash, economist Irving Fisher famously proclaimed, Stock prices have reached what looks like a high plateau. The optimism and financial gains of the bull market were shaken after a well publicized early September prediction from financial expert Roger Babson that a crash was coming. The initial September decline was thus called the Babson Break in the press and this was the start of the Great Crash, although until the severe phase of the crash in October, many investors regarded the September Babson Break as a healthy correction and buying opportunity. On September 20, the London Stock Exchange crashed when top British investor Clarence Hatry and many of his associates were jailed for fraud, the London crash greatly weakened the optimism of American investment in markets overseas. In the days leading up to the crash, the market was severely unstable, periods of selling and high volumes were interspersed with brief periods of rising prices and recovery. On October 24, the market lost 11 percent of its value at the bell on very heavy trading. Several leading Wall Street bankers met to find a solution to the panic and chaos on the trading floor. The meeting included Thomas W. Lamont, acting head of Morgan Bank, Albert Wiggin, head of the Chase National Bank and they chose Richard Whitney, vice president of the Exchange, to act on their behalf. With the bankers financial resources behind him, Whitney placed a bid to purchase a block of shares in U. S. Steel at a price well above the current market. As traders watched, Whitney then placed similar bids on other blue chip stocks and this tactic was similar to one that ended the Panic of 1907. It succeeded in halting the slide, the Dow Jones Industrial Average recovered, closing with it down only 6.38 points for the day
12.
Hollywood
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Hollywood is an ethnically diverse, densely populated neighborhood in the central region of Los Angeles, California. It is notable as the home of the U. S. film industry, including several of its studios, and its name has come to be a shorthand reference for the industry. Hollywood was a community in 1870 and was incorporated as a municipality in 1903. It was consolidated with the city of Los Angeles in 1910, in 1853, one adobe hut stood in Nopalera, named for the Mexican Nopal cactus indigenous to the area. By 1870, an agricultural community flourished, the area was known as the Cahuenga Valley, after the pass in the Santa Monica Mountains immediately to the north. According to the diary of H. J. Whitley, known as the Father of Hollywood, along came a Chinese man in a wagon carrying wood. The man got out of the wagon and bowed, the Chinese man was asked what he was doing and replied, I holly-wood, meaning hauling wood. H. J. Whitley had an epiphany and decided to name his new town Hollywood, Holly would represent England and wood would represent his Scottish heritage. Whitley had already started over 100 towns across the western United States, Whitley arranged to buy the 500-acre E. C. Hurd ranch and disclosed to him his plans for the land. They agreed on a price and Hurd agreed to sell at a later date, before Whitley got off the ground with Hollywood, plans for the new town had spread to General Harrison Gray Otis, Hurds wife, eastern adjacent ranch co-owner Daeida Wilcox, and others. Daeida Wilcox may have learned of the name Hollywood from Ivar Weid, her neighbor in Holly Canyon and she recommended the same name to her husband, Harvey. In August 1887, Wilcox filed with the Los Angeles County Recorders office a deed and parcel map of property he had sold named Hollywood, Wilcox wanted to be the first to record it on a deed. The early real-estate boom busted that year, yet Hollywood began its slow growth. By 1900, the region had a post office, newspaper, hotel, Los Angeles, with a population of 102,479 lay 10 miles east through the vineyards, barley fields, and citrus groves. A single-track streetcar line ran down the middle of Prospect Avenue from it, but service was infrequent, the old citrus fruit-packing house was converted into a livery stable, improving transportation for the inhabitants of Hollywood. The Hollywood Hotel was opened in 1902 by H. J. Whitley who was a president of the Los Pacific Boulevard, having finally acquired the Hurd ranch and subdivided it, Whitley built the hotel to attract land buyers. Flanking the west side of Highland Avenue, the structure fronted on Prospect Avenue, the hotel was to become internationally known and was the center of the civic and social life and home of the stars for many years. Whitleys company developed and sold one of the residential areas
13.
Western (genre)
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Cowboys and gunslingers typically wear Stetson hats, bandannas, spurs, cowboy boots and buckskins. Other characters include Native Americans, bandits, lawmen, bounty hunters, outlaws, mounted cavalry, settlers, Westerns often stress the harshness of the wilderness and frequently set the action in an arid, desolate landscape of deserts and mountains. Often, the vast landscape plays an important role, presenting a. mythic vision of the plains, specific settings include ranches, small frontier towns, saloons, railways and isolated military forts of the Wild West. Many Westerns use a plot of depicting a crime, then showing the pursuit of the wrongdoer, ending in revenge and retribution. The Western was the most popular Hollywood genre, from the early 20th century to the 1960s, Western films first became well-attended in the 1930s. John Fords landmark Western adventure Stagecoach became one of the biggest hits in 1939, Westerns were very popular throughout the 1950s and 1960s. Many of the most acclaimed Westerns were released during this time – including High Noon, Shane, The Searchers, the Western depicts a society organized around codes of honor and personal, direct or private justice–frontier justice–dispensed by gunfights. These honor codes are played out through depictions of feuds or individuals seeking personal revenge or retribution against someone who has wronged them. The popular perception of the Western is a story that centers on the life of a semi-nomadic wanderer, a showdown or duel at high noon featuring two or more gunfighters is a stereotypical scene in the popular conception of Westerns. In some ways, such protagonists may be considered the descendants of the knight errant which stood at the center of earlier extensive genres such as the Arthurian Romances. And like knights errant, the heroes of Westerns frequently rescue damsels in distress, similarly, the wandering protagonists of Westerns share many characteristics with the ronin in modern Japanese culture. The Western typically takes these elements and uses them to tell simple morality tales, Westerns often stress the harshness and isolation of the wilderness and frequently set the action in an arid, desolate landscape. Apart from the wilderness, it is usually the saloon that emphasizes that this is the Wild West, it is the place to go for music, women, gambling, drinking, brawling and shooting. The American Film Institute defines western films as those set in the American West that embodies the spirit, the struggle, the term Western, used to describe a narrative film genre, appears to have originated with a July 1912 article in Motion Picture World Magazine. Most of the characteristics of Western films were part of 19th century popular Western fiction and were firmly in place before film became an art form. Protagonists ride between dusty towns and cattle ranches on their trusty steeds, Western films were enormously popular in the silent film era. With the advent of sound in 1927-28, the major Hollywood studios rapidly abandoned Westerns, leaving the genre to smaller studios and these smaller organizations churned out countless low-budget features and serials in the 1930s. Released through United Artists, Stagecoach made John Wayne a mainstream star in the wake of a decade of headlining B westerns
14.
Duel in the Sun (film)
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The movie stars Jennifer Jones, Joseph Cotten, Gregory Peck, Lillian Gish, and Lionel Barrymore. Pearl Chavez is orphaned after her father Scott Chavez kills her mother, before Scott Chavez is executed as a punishment for killing his wife, he arranges for his daughter Pearl to live with his second cousin and old sweetheart, Laura Belle. Arriving by stagecoach, Pearl is met by Jesse McCanles, one of Laura Belles two grown sons and he takes her to Spanish Bit, their enormous cattle ranch. The second son, Lewt, is a man with a personality quite unlike that of his gentlemanly brother Jesse. He expresses his interest in Pearl in direct terms and she takes a dislike to him. Laura Belle calls in Mr. Jubal Crabbe, the Sinkiller, Pearl is determined to remain a good girl. When she submits to Lewts aggressive advances one night, Pearl is angry with him, but she also cannot help but be flattered by his lust and attentions. Jesse, meanwhile, is ostracized by his father and no longer welcome at the ranch after siding with railroad men, headed by Mr. Langford, against the Senators personal interests. Jesse is in love with Pearl but he leaves for Austin to pursue a career and becomes engaged to Helen Langford. Offended when Lewt reneges on a promise to marry her, Pearl takes up with Sam Pierce and she does not love him but says yes to his proposal. Before they can be married, however, Lewt picks a fight with Pierce in a saloon and he insists that Pearl can belong only to him. On the run from the law, Lewt finds time to derail a train and occasionally drop by the ranch late at night and she cannot resist her desire for him and lies for Lewt to the law, hiding him in her room. Afterward, however, he walks out on her, despite her pleas that she loves him, Laura Belles health takes a turn for the worse and the Senator admits his love for her before she dies. Jesse returns to visit but is too late, his mother is dead, the Senator continues to shun him, as does Lewt, their family feud finally resulting in a showdown. Lewt tosses a gun to his brother but Jesse stands his ground without attempting to pick it up. Jesse warns that Lewt will eventually be hanged as a murderer, the Senators old friend, Lem Smoot tells him that Jesses wound is not mortal and the old man softens up towards his son. A livid Pearl is relieved that Jesse is going to survive, when Helen arrives, she invites Pearl to leave Spanish Bit forever and come live with them in Austin. Pearl agrees, but she is tipped off by one of the Spanish Bit hands and she arms herself and engages in a shootout with Lewt in the desert, where they die in each others arms
15.
Red River (1948 film)
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The dramatic tension stems from a growing feud over the management of the drive, between the Texas rancher who initiated it and his adopted adult son. The films supporting cast features Walter Brennan, Joanne Dru, Coleen Gray, Harry Carey, John Ireland, Hank Worden, Noah Beery, Jr. Harry Carey, Jr. borden Chase and Charles Schnee wrote the screenplay, based on Chases original story. In 1990, Red River was selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry by the Library of Congress as being culturally, historically, thomas Dunson is a stubborn man who wants nothing more than to start up a successful cattle ranch in Texas. Despite this tragedy, Dunson and Groot press on and that night, Dunson and Groot, keeping watch, hear a group of Indians planning to attack them. They kill the Indians, and on the wrist of one, one day before, he had presented it to his young love as he left the wagon train. The bracelet reappears significantly later in the film, the next day, an orphaned boy named Matthew Garth wanders into Dunson and Groots camp, traumatized and babbling incoherently. He had been part of the wagon train Dunson had left and he is the sole survivor of the wagon train. Dunson adopts him and ties the boys cow to his wagon, with only the bull and the cow, Dunson, Groot and the boy enter Texas by crossing the Red River. In search for land travel through Texas, finally settling in deep South Texas near the Rio Grande. Upon arrival, Dunson proudly proclaims all the land about them as his own, two Mexican men appear on horseback and inform Dunson that the land already belongs to their boss, a Spanish grandee whose family held the land by patent from the King of Spain. Dunson dismisses this inconvenient fact and, thanks to a draw in a showdown, kills one of the men. Dunson names his new spread the Red River D, after his chosen cattle brand for his herd, fatefully, he promises to add M to the brand, once Matt has earned it. Fourteen years pass and Dunson now has a fully operational cattle ranch, with the help of Matt and Groot, his herd now numbers over ten thousand cattle, but he is also broke as a result of widespread poverty in the southern United States. Due to its loss of the American Civil War, the South cannot afford Dunsons beef, Dunson decides to drive his massive herd hundreds of miles north to the railhead at Sedalia, Missouri, where he believes they will fetch a good price. After Dunson hires some men to help out with the drive, including professional gunman Cherry Valance. Along the way, they encounter many troubles including a stampede sparked by one of the men, Bunk Kenneally and this leads to the death of Dan Latimer. The wounded Bunk is sent to make his way home on his own, continuing with the drive, Valance relates around the campfire one evening that the railroad has reached Abilene, Kansas, which is much closer than Sedalia. When Dunson confirms that Valance had not actually seen the railroad, deeper problems arise when Dunsons tyrannical leadership style begins to affect the men
16.
High Noon
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High Noon is a 1952 American Western film produced by Stanley Kramer from a screenplay by Carl Foreman, directed by Fred Zinnemann, and starring Gary Cooper. The plot, depicted in real time, centers around a town marshal, though mired in controversy with political overtones at the time of its release, the film was nominated for seven Academy Awards, and won four as well as four Golden Globe Awards. The award-winning score was written by Russian-born composer Dimitri Tiomkin, in Hadleyville, a small town in New Mexico Territory, Marshal Will Kane, newly married to Amy Fowler, is preparing to retire. Millers gang—his younger brother Ben, Jack Colby, and Jim Pierce —await his arrival at the train station, for Amy, a devout Quaker and pacifist, the solution is simple—leave town before Miller arrives, but Kanes sense of duty and honor is strong. Theyre making me run, he tells her, ive never run from anybody before. Besides, he says, Miller and his gang will hunt him down anyway, Amy gives Kane an ultimatum, She is leaving on the noon train, with or without him. While waiting at the hotel for the train, she meets Helen Ramírez, who was once Millers lover, and then Kanes, and is leaving as well. Amy understands why Helen is fleeing, but the reverse is not true, Helen tells Amy that if Kane were her man, Kanes efforts to round up a posse at the tavern, and then the church, are met with fear and hostility. Some townspeople, worried that a gunfight would damage the towns reputation, others are Millers friends, and resent that Kane cleaned up the town in the first place. Kanes young deputy Harvey Pell, who is bitter that Kane did not recommend him as his successor, says he will stand with Kane only if Kane goes to the city fathers, Kane rejects the quid pro quo, and Pell turns in his badge. Kane writes out his will as the clock in his office ticks toward high noon, at the stables, Pell saddles a horse and tries to persuade Kane to mount it and leave town. Their conversation becomes an argument, and then a fist fight, Kane finally knocks his former deputy senseless, then goes into the street to face Miller and his gang. In one of the most iconic shots in film history, the camera rises, the outlaws approach and the gunfight begins. Kane guns down Ben Miller and Colby, but is wounded in the process, as the train is about to leave the station, Amy hears the gunfire, leaps off, and runs back to town. Choosing her husbands life over her religious beliefs, she picks up Ben Millers gun and shoots Pierce from behind, leaving only Frank Miller, Amy claws Millers face and he pushes her to the ground, giving Kane a clear shot, and he shoots Miller dead. Kane helps his bride to her feet and they embrace, as the townspeople emerge and cluster around him, Kane surveys them with bitter contempt, wordlessly throws his marshals star in the dirt, and departs with Amy on their wagon. Foreman had once been a member of the Communist Party, but he declined to identify fellow members, as a result, he was labeled an uncooperative witness by the committee, making him vulnerable to blacklisting. After his refusal to name names was made public, Foremans production partner Stanley Kramer demanded a dissolution of their partnership
17.
The Big Sky (film)
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The Big Sky is a 1952 American Western film produced and directed by Howard Hawks, based on the novel of the same name. The cast includes Kirk Douglas, Dewey Martin, Elizabeth Threatt and Arthur Hunnicutt, though not considered among Hawkss major achievements by most critics, the film was chosen by Jonathan Rosenbaum for his alternative list of the Top 100 American Films. In 1832, Jim Deakins is traveling in the wilderness when he encounters an initially hostile Boone Caudill, however, they soon become good friends. They head to the Missouri River in search of Boones uncle and they find him when they are tossed in jail for brawling with fur traders of the Missouri River Company. When Frenchy Jourdonnais comes to bail Zeb out, Zeb talks him into paying for Jim, the two men join an expedition organized by Zeb and Frenchy to travel 2,000 miles up the river to trade with the Blackfoot Indians, in competition with the Missouri Company. Zeb has brought along Teal Eye, a pretty Blackfoot woman Zeb found several years before after she had escaped from an enemy tribe, Zeb intends to use her as a hostage, as she is the daughter of a chief. On the journey, they encounter another Blackfoot Zeb knows, Poordevil, later, Teal Eye falls into the river and is rescued from rapids by Boone. The Missouri Company knows about the threat to their monopoly, one day, it makes its move. A party led by Streak captures Teal Eye and tries to burn the boat, Poordevil tracks the enemy and Zeb and Jim rescue the woman. Later, the expedition puts in at a trading post. A week later, they repulse an attack by Crow Indians, Jim is separated from the group and shot in the leg. Boone, followed by Teal Eye and Poordevil, finds him, extracts the bullet, when they rejoin their band, they find Streak trying to buy the boat and the goods on it. Jim compares the bullet dug out of his leg one of Streaks. Streak and his men are killed in the ensuing shootout, the expedition reaches the Blackfeet and begins trading. Teal Eye tells a very disappointed Jim that she loves him, Boone follows her back to her teepee. When he emerges much later, he is surprised to find out he is now married, however, Teal Eye makes him buy her from her father, so that he can leave any time he wants to. With winter coming on, the men begin the return trip. However, Boone changes his mind and decides to stay with Teal Eye, recorded in London in December 1975, the RCA Red Seal album was re-released on audio CD in 1991 and 2010
18.
Gunfight at the O.K. Corral (film)
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Gunfight at the O. K. Corral is a 1957 American western film starring Burt Lancaster as Wyatt Earp and Kirk Douglas as Doc Holliday, based on a real event which took place on October 26,1881. The picture was directed by John Sturges from a written by novelist Leon Uris. The shootout was couched in the movie as a firefight that took place at medium range. The historical event itself lasted only about 30 seconds, and was fought at close range with only a few firearms, in Fort Griffin, Texas, Ed Bailey comes looking to avenge the death of his brother at the hands of gunslinger John H. Seeing him in a bar, Hollidays girl, Kate Fisher, returns to Hollidays room, Holliday refuses to help the lawman, holding a grudge against Wyatts brother, Morgan. Holliday kills Bailey with a knife-throw when Bailey attempts to him in the back. Holliday is arrested for murder, though Wyatt and Kate allow him to escape from a lynch mob, in Dodge City, Kansas, Wyatt finds out that Holliday and Kate are in town. Holliday tells him he has no money, so Wyatt allows him to stay if he promises to not fight while he is in town, meanwhile, gorgeous gambler Laura Denbow is arrested for playing cards since women are not allowed to gamble. She is released and allowed to play in the rooms of the saloon. Wyatt is forced to deputize Holliday because a bank robber kills a cashier, the bank robbers attempt to ambush Wyatt outside of town, but are instead killed by Wyatt and Holliday. Back in Dodge City, Holliday learns Kate has left him for Ringo, Holliday steadfastly refuses to fight him. Shanghai Pierce and his henchmen ride into town, wound deputy Charlie Bassett and attack a dancehall, as Ringo attempts to intervene, Holliday shoots him in the arm. Holliday returns to his room and Kate is waiting for him and she swears she will see him dead. By now, Wyatt and Laura have fallen in love, but when he receives a letter from his brother, Virgil, asking him to clean up Tombstone, Arizona. Holliday catches up to Wyatt on the trail and both head to Tombstone, in Tombstone, Wyatt finds out that Ike Clanton is trying to herd thousands of head of Mexican cattle but cannot as long as the Earps control Tombstones railway station. Morgan Earp criticizes his brothers association with Holliday, but Wyatt insists the gunslinger is welcome in Tombstone as long as he out of trouble. Cotton, the county sheriff from Fort Griffin, offers Wyatt a $20,000 bribe if he allows the stolen cattle to be shipped. He rides out to the Clanton ranch, returning young Billy Clanton to his mother after finding Billy drunk, Wyatt informs Ike that he has been made a U. S
19.
Last Train from Gun Hill
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Last Train from Gun Hill is a 1959 Western by action director John Sturges. It stars Kirk Douglas, Anthony Quinn, Carolyn Jones, Douglas and Holliman had previously appeared together in Sturges Gunfight at the O. K. Corral, which used much of the same crew. Two old friends, Matt Morgan and Craig Belden, now themselves on opposite sides of the law. Belden, a cattle baron, is the de facto ruler of the town of Gun Hill. Morgan is a U. S. marshal living in town with his Native American wife and young son. Two young drunken cowboys rape and murder Morgans wife while she is returning with their son from a visit to her father, the boy escapes on one of the killers horses, bearing a distinctive, fancy saddle. Morgan sets off to find the killer and his one clue is the saddle, which he recognizes as belonging to Belden. Assuming it was stolen from his old friend, Morgan travels to Gun Hill to pick up the trail, Belden refuses to turn over his son, forcing Morgan to go against the entire town. He vows to capture Rick and get him on that nights last train from Gun Hill, Morgan takes Rick prisoner, holding him at the hotel. Belden sends men to rescue his son, but Morgan manages to hold them off, in the meantime, Beldens former lover decides to help Morgan. She sneaks a shotgun to his hotel room, the second rapist, Lee, sets fire to the hotel to flush out Morgan. Morgan presses the shotgun to Ricks chin on the way to the train depot, Lee tries to kill Morgan but shoots Rick instead. Morgan then kills Lee with the shotgun, as the train prepares to leave, a devastated Belden confronts Morgan in a final showdown and is gunned down. Dell Four Color #1012 List of American films of 1959 Last Train from Gun Hill at the Internet Movie Database Last Train from Gun Hill at Rotten Tomatoes
20.
Academy Awards
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The various category winners are awarded a copy of a golden statuette, officially called the Academy Award of Merit, which has become commonly known by its nickname Oscar. The awards, first presented in 1929 at the Hollywood Roosevelt Hotel, are overseen by AMPAS, the awards ceremony was first broadcast on radio in 1930 and televised for the first time in 1953. It is now live in more than 200 countries and can be streamed live online. The Academy Awards ceremony is the oldest worldwide entertainment awards ceremony and its equivalents – the Emmy Awards for television, the Tony Awards for theater, and the Grammy Awards for music and recording – are modeled after the Academy Awards. The 89th Academy Awards ceremony, honoring the best films of 2016, were held on February 26,2017, at the Dolby Theatre, in Los Angeles, the ceremony was hosted by Jimmy Kimmel and was broadcast on ABC. A total of 3,048 Oscars have been awarded from the inception of the award through the 88th, the first Academy Awards presentation was held on May 16,1929, at a private dinner function at the Hollywood Roosevelt Hotel with an audience of about 270 people. The post-awards party was held at the Mayfair Hotel, the cost of guest tickets for that nights ceremony was $5. Fifteen statuettes were awarded, honoring artists, directors and other participants in the industry of the time. The ceremony ran for 15 minutes, winners were announced to media three months earlier, however, that was changed for the second ceremony in 1930. Since then, for the rest of the first decade, the results were given to newspapers for publication at 11,00 pm on the night of the awards. The first Best Actor awarded was Emil Jannings, for his performances in The Last Command and he had to return to Europe before the ceremony, so the Academy agreed to give him the prize earlier, this made him the first Academy Award winner in history. With the fourth ceremony, however, the system changed, for the first six ceremonies, the eligibility period spanned two calendar years. At the 29th ceremony, held on March 27,1957, until then, foreign-language films had been honored with the Special Achievement Award. The 74th Academy Awards, held in 2002, presented the first Academy Award for Best Animated Feature, since 1973, all Academy Awards ceremonies always end with the Academy Award for Best Picture. The Academy also awards Nicholl Fellowships in Screenwriting, see also § Awards of Merit categories The best known award is the Academy Award of Merit, more popularly known as the Oscar statuette. The five spokes represent the branches of the Academy, Actors, Writers, Directors, Producers. The model for the statuette is said to be Mexican actor Emilio El Indio Fernández, sculptor George Stanley sculpted Cedric Gibbons design. The statuettes presented at the ceremonies were gold-plated solid bronze
21.
The High and the Mighty (film)
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The High and the Mighty is a 1954 WarnerColor American disaster film in CinemaScope directed by William A. Wellman and written by Ernest K. Gann who also wrote the 1953 novel on which his screenplay was based, the films cast was headlined by John Wayne, who was also the projects co-producer. Composer Dimitri Tiomkin won an Academy Award for his original score while his song for the film also was nominated for an Oscar. The film received positive reviews and grossed $8.5 million in its theatrical release. The supporting cast includes Claire Trevor, Laraine Day, Robert Stack, Jan Sterling, Phil Harris, in Honolulu, a DC-4 airliner prepares to take off for San Francisco with 17 passengers and a crew of 5. Former captain Dan Roman, the veteran first officer known for his habit of whistling, is haunted by a crash that killed his wife and son. The captain, Sullivan, suffers from a fear of responsibility after logging thousands of hours looking after the lives of passengers. Young second officer Hobie Wheeler and veteran navigator Lenny Wilby are contrasts in age, Spalding befriends the terminally ill Frank Briscoe after being charmed by his pocket watch. A last-minute arrival, Humphrey Agnew, causes the crew concern with his strange behavior, after a routine departure, the airliner experiences sporadic sudden vibrations. Although the crew senses that something may be wrong with the propellers, when a vibration causes Spalding to burn her hand, Dan inspects the tail compartment but still finds nothing amiss. After nightfall, as the passes the point of no return, Agnew confronts fellow passenger Ken Childs. The men struggle and Agnew pulls out a gun, intending to shoot Childs, but before he can do so, the airliner swerves violently when it loses a propeller, the crew quickly extinguishes the fire, but the engine has twisted off its mounting. In mid-ocean, the radios for help and sets in motion a rescue operation. Unassuming José Locota disarms Agnew and confiscates the gun, compelling him to sit quietly, gustave Pardee, who up until now has made no secret of his fear of flying, inspires calm in his terrified fellow passengers. Dan calmly explains the situation, trying to lessen their anxiety, the passengers rally around each other and find changed perspectives about their existing problems. They toss luggage from the airliner to lighten its load, with May Holst literally kissing her mink coat goodbye, in San Francisco, Manager Tim Garfield comes to the airlines operations center but is not sanguine about their chances. Dans experience tells him that their luck would be trying to make land than ditching in the rough seas at night. Sullivan panics and prepares to ditch immediately, but Dan slaps him back to his senses, thinking clearly again, Sullivan decides not to ditch
22.
The Old Man and the Sea (1958 film)
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The Old Man and the Sea is a 1958 American adventure drama film directed by John Sturges with uncredited direction from Henry King and Fred Zinnemann. The screenplay was adapted by Peter Viertel from the novella of the name by Ernest Hemingway. Dimitri Tiomkin won the Academy Award for Best Original Score for his work on the film, the same year, Tracy was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Actor. The Old Man in the film is a Cuban fisherman who has gone 84 days without a catch and his only friend is a young boy who has been barred by his father from accompanying the Old Man out to sea. On the Old Mans 85th day out, he hooks a huge marlin. For three days and nights he battles the fish, which is portrayed in the film as a trial of mental and physical courage that becomes the ultimate test for him of his worth as a man, spencer Tracy as The Old Man Felipe Pazos Jr. The films budget, originally $2 million, grew to $5 million in search of suitable fish footage, Sturges called it technically the sloppiest picture I have ever made. The credits note that Some of the film used in this picture was of the worlds record catch by Alfred C. Glassell, Jr. at the Cabo Blanco Fishing Club in Peru, Mr. Glassell acted as special advisor for these sequences. Veteran film composer Dimitri Tiomkin composed and conducted the music for the film and his soundtrack recording, with the Warner Brothers Studio Orchestra, was recorded in the auditorium of Hollywood Post No. 43, American Legion, in Hollywood, The Billboard reported that the acoustics in the Hollywood Legion were far superior to most studio space in Hollywood and similar to that of the best concert halls. During the week of April 21,1958, Columbia held open sessions for The Old Man, the soundtrack was later released in both stereo and mono by Columbia Records. Also credit Dimitri Tiomkin for providing a score that virtually puts Mr. Tracy in the position of a soloist with a symphony. And that just about completes a run-down of the aspects of this film. There are, to be sure, some long shots of Cuban villages. Time noted that the script follows the book in almost every detail, according to producer Hayward, Hemingway was pleased with the film, and said it had a wonderful emotional quality and is very grateful and pleased with the transference of his material to the screen. The handling of the fishing and mechanical fish very good, but all in all he was terribly high on the picture and pleased with it
23.
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
24.
Ukrainian language
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Ukrainian /juːˈkreɪniən/ is an East Slavic language. Written Ukrainian uses a variant of the Cyrillic script, historical linguists trace the origin of the Ukrainian language to the Old East Slavic of the early medieval state of Kievan Rus. After the fall of the Kievan Rus as well as the Kingdom of Galicia–Volhynia, the Modern Ukrainian language has been in common use since the late 17th century, associated with the establishment of the Cossack Hetmanate. From 1804 until the Russian Revolution, the Ukrainian language was banned from schools in the Russian Empire and it has always maintained a sufficient base in Western Ukraine, where the language was never banned, in its folklore songs, itinerant musicians, and prominent authors. The Ukrainian language retains a degree of intelligibility with Belarusian and Russian. The first theory of the origin of Ukrainian language was suggested in Imperial Russia in the middle of the 18th century by Mikhail Lomonosov and this theory posits the existence of a common language spoken by all East Slavic people in the time of the Rus. Another point of view developed during the 19th and 20th centuries by linguists of Imperial Russia, like Lomonosov, they assumed the existence of a common language spoken by East Slavs in the past. This general point of view is the most accepted amongst academics worldwide, the supporters of this theory disagree, however, about the time when the different languages were formed. Soviet scholars set the divergence between Ukrainian and Russian only at time periods. During the time of the incorporation of Ruthenia into the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth and this point of view is, however, at variance with some historical data. In fact, several East Slavic tribes, such as Polans, Drevlyans, Severians, Dulebes, White Croats, Tiverians, notably, some Ukrainian features were recognizable in the southern dialects of Old East Slavic as far back as the language can be documented. In contrast, Ahatanhel Krymsky and Alexei Shakhmatov assumed the existence of the spoken language of Eastern Slavs only in prehistoric times. According to their point of view, the diversification of the Old East Slavic language took place in the 8th or early 9th century, Ukrainian linguist Stepan Smal-Stotsky went even further, denying the existence of a common Old East Slavic language at any time in the past. Similar points of view were shared by Yevhen Tymchenko, Vsevolod Hantsov, Olena Kurylo, Ivan Ohienko, according to this theory, the dialects of East Slavic tribes evolved gradually from the common Proto-Slavic language without any intermediate stages during the 6th through 9th centuries. The Ukrainian language was formed by convergence of tribal dialects, mostly due to a migration of the population within the territory of todays Ukraine in later historical periods. This point of view was supported by George Shevelovs phonological studies. During the 13th century, when German settlers were invited to Ukraine by the princes of Galicia-Vollhynia and their influence would continue under Poland not only through German colonists but also through the Yiddish-speaking Jews. Often such words involve trade or handicrafts, examples of words of German or Yiddish origin spoken in Ukraine include dakh, rura, rynok, kushnir, and majster
25.
Jews
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The Jews, also known as the Jewish people, are an ethnoreligious group originating from the Israelites, or Hebrews, of the Ancient Near East. Jews originated as a national and religious group in the Middle East during the second millennium BCE, the Merneptah Stele appears to confirm the existence of a people of Israel, associated with the god El, somewhere in Canaan as far back as the 13th century BCE. The Israelites, as an outgrowth of the Canaanite population, consolidated their hold with the emergence of the Kingdom of Israel, some consider that these Canaanite sedentary Israelites melded with incoming nomadic groups known as Hebrews. The worldwide Jewish population reached a peak of 16.7 million prior to World War II, but approximately 6 million Jews were systematically murdered during the Holocaust. Since then the population has risen again, and as of 2015 was estimated at 14.3 million by the Berman Jewish DataBank. According to the report, about 43% of all Jews reside in Israel and these numbers include all those who self-identified as Jews in a socio-demographic study or were identified as such by a respondent in the same household. The exact world Jewish population, however, is difficult to measure, Israel is the only country where Jews form a majority of the population. The modern State of Israel was established as a Jewish state and defines itself as such in its Declaration of Independence and its Law of Return grants the right of citizenship to any Jew who requests it. The English word Jew continues Middle English Gyw, Iewe, according to the Hebrew Bible, the name of both the tribe and kingdom derive from Judah, the fourth son of Jacob. The Hebrew word for Jew, יְהוּדִי ISO 259-3 Yhudi, is pronounced, with the stress on the syllable, in Israeli Hebrew. The Ladino name is ג׳ודיו, Djudio, ג׳ודיוס, Djudios, Yiddish, ייִד Yid, ייִדן, Yidn. The etymological equivalent is in use in languages, e. g. but derivations of the word Hebrew are also in use to describe a Jew, e. g. in Italian. The German word Jude is pronounced, the corresponding adjective jüdisch is the origin of the word Yiddish, in such contexts Jewish is the only acceptable possibility. Some people, however, have become so wary of this construction that they have extended the stigma to any use of Jew as a noun, a factual reconstruction for the origin of the Jews is a difficult and complex endeavor. It requires examining at least 3,000 years of ancient human history using documents in vast quantities, as archaeological discovery relies upon researchers and scholars from diverse disciplines, the goal is to interpret all of the factual data, focusing on the most consistent theory. In this case, it is complicated by long standing politics and religious, Jacob and his family migrated to Ancient Egypt after being invited to live with Jacobs son Joseph by the Pharaoh himself. The patriarchs descendants were later enslaved until the Exodus led by Moses, traditionally dated to the 13th century BCE, Modern archaeology has largely discarded the historicity of the Patriarchs and of the Exodus story, with it being reframed as constituting the Israelites inspiring national myth narrative. The growth of Yahweh-centric belief, along with a number of practices, gradually gave rise to a distinct Israelite ethnic group
26.
Paul Ehrlich
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Paul Ehrlich was a German physician and scientist who worked in the fields of hematology, immunology, and antimicrobial chemotherapy. He invented the technique to Gram staining bacteria. The methods he developed for staining tissue made it possible to distinguish different types of blood cells, which led to the capability to diagnose numerous blood diseases. His laboratory discovered arsphenamine, the first effective treatment for syphilis, thereby initiating. Ehrlich popularized the concept of a magic bullet and he also made a decisive contribution to the development of an antiserum to combat diphtheria and conceived a method for standardizing therapeutic serums. In 1908, he received the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for his contributions to immunology and he was the founder and first director of what is now known as the Paul Ehrlich Institute. Born 14 March 1854 in Strehlen in Silesia in what is now south-west Poland, Paul Ehrlich was the second child of Rosa and Ismar Ehrlich. His father was an innkeeper and distiller of liqueurs and the royal lottery collector in Strehelen and his grandfather, Heymann Ehrlich, had been a fairly successful distiller and tavern manager. Ismar Ehrlich was the leader of the local Jewish community, after elementary school, Paul attended the time-honored secondary school Maria-Magdalenen-Gymnasium in Breslau, where he met Albert Neisser, who later became a professional colleague. As a schoolboy, he became fascinated by the process of staining microscopic tissue substances and he retained that interest during his subsequent medical studies at the universities of Breslau, Strasbourg, Freiburg im Breisgau and Leipzig. He married Hedwig Pinkus in 1883, the couple had two daughters, Stephanie and Marianne. Upon his return he established a medical practice and small laboratory in Berlin-Steglitz. Ehrlich was named its founding director, in 1899 his institute moved to Frankfurt am Main and was renamed the Institute of Experimental Therapy. One of his important collaborators there was Max Neisser, in 1906 Ehrlich became the director of the Georg Speyer House in Frankfurt, a private research foundation affiliated with his institute. Among the foreign guest scientists working with Ehrlich were two Nobel Prize winners, Henry Hallett Dale and Paul Karrer, the institute was renamed Paul Ehrlich Institute in Ehrlichs honour in 1947. In 1914 Ehrlich signed the controversial Manifesto of the Ninety-Three which was a defense of Germany’s World War I politics, on 17 August 1915 Ehrlich suffered a heart attack and died on 20 August in Bad Homburg vor der Höhe. Paul Ehrlich was buried at the Old Jewish Cemetery, Frankfurt, in the early 1870s, Ehrlich’s cousin Karl Weigert was the first person to stain bacteria with dyes and to introduce aniline pigments for histological studies and bacterial diagnostics. During his studies in Strassburg under the anatomist Heinrich Wilhelm Waldeyer, Ehrlich continued the started by his cousin in pigments
27.
Zionism
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Zionism is the national movement of the Jewish people that supports the re-establishment of a Jewish homeland in the territory defined as the historic Land of Israel. Zionism emerged in the late 19th century in Central and Eastern Europe as a revival movement, in reaction to anti-Semitic. Soon after this, most leaders of the movement associated the main goal with creating the state in Palestine. Since the establishment of the State of Israel in 1948, Zionism continues primarily to advocate on behalf of Israel and to threats to its continued existence. A variety of Zionism, called cultural Zionism, founded and represented most prominently by Ahad Haam, unlike Herzl, the founder of political Zionism, Ahad Haam strived for Israel to be a Jewish state and not merely a state of Jews. Advocates of Zionism view it as a liberation movement for the repatriation of a persecuted people residing as minorities in a variety of nations to their ancestral homeland. The term Zionism is derived from the word Zion, referring to Jerusalem and these groups were collectively called the Lovers of Zion and were seen to encounter a growing Jewish movement toward assimilation. The first use of the term is attributed to the Austrian Nathan Birnbaum, founder of a nationalist Jewish students movement Kadimah, the common denominator among all Zionists is the claim to Eretz Israel as the national homeland of the Jews and as the legitimate focus for Jewish national self-determination. It is based on ties and religious traditions linking the Jewish people to the Land of Israel. Zionism does not have an ideology, but has evolved in a dialogue among a plethora of ideologies, General Zionism, Religious Zionism, Labor Zionism, Revisionist Zionism, Green Zionism. The political movement was established by the Austro-Hungarian journalist Theodor Herzl in 1897 following the publication of his book Der Judenstaat. At that time, the movement sought to encourage Jewish migration to Ottoman Palestine, although initially one of several Jewish political movements offering alternative responses to assimilation and antisemitism, Zionism expanded rapidly. In its early stages, supporters considered setting up a Jewish state in the territory of Palestine. After World War II and the destruction of Jewish life in Central and Eastern Europe where these alternative movements were rooted, the alliance with Britain was strained as the latter realized the implications of the Jewish movement for Arabs in Palestine but the Zionists persisted. The movement was successful in establishing Israel on May 14,1948. The proportion of the worlds Jews living in Israel has steadily grown since the movement emerged, by the early 21st century, more than 40% of the worlds Jews live in Israel, more than in any other country. These two outcomes represent the success of Zionism, and are unmatched by any other Jewish political movement in the past 2,000 years. In some academic studies, Zionism has been analyzed both within the context of diaspora politics and as an example of modern national liberation movements
28.
Saint Petersburg Conservatory
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The N. A. Rimsky-Korsakov Saint Petersburg State Conservatory is a music school in Saint Petersburg. In 2004, the conservatory had around 275 faculty members and 1,400 students, the conservatory was founded in 1862 by the Russian pianist and composer Anton Rubinstein. On his resignation in 1867, he was succeeded by Nikolai Zaremba, Rimsky-Korsakov was appointed in 1871 and the conservatory has borne his name since 1944. In 1887, Rubinstein returned to the Conservatory with the goal of improving overall standards and he revised the curriculum, expelled inferior students, fired and demoted many professors, and made entrance and examination requirements more stringent. In 1891, he resigned again over the Imperial demand of racial quotas, the current building was erected in the 1890s on the site of the old Bolshoi Theatre of Saint Petersburg and still preserves its grand staircase and landing. As the city changed its name in the 20th century, the conservatory was duly renamed Petrograd Conservatory, amongst his pupils were German Okunev and Boris Tishchenko. Composer Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov taught at the Conservatory for almost forty years, the youngest musician ever admitted to the Conservatory was four-year-old violinist Clara Rockmore, who later became one of the worlds foremost theremin players. Anton Rubinstein Nikolai Zaremba Mikhail Azanchevsky Karl Davydov Yuli Johansen Auguste Bernhard Alexander Glazunov A
29.
Felix Blumenfeld
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Felix Mikhailovich Blumenfeld was a Russian composer, conductor, pianist, and teacher. He then taught there himself from 1885 until 1918, whilst also serving as conductor of the Mariinsky Theatre until 1911. This theatre saw the premieres of the operas composed by his teacher and mentor Rimsky-Korsakov, in 1908, he conducted the Paris premiere of Modest Mussorgskys opera Boris Godunov. From 1918 to 1922, he was the director of the Music-drama school of Mykola Lysenko in Kiev and he returned to the Moscow Conservatory in 1922, teaching there until his death. Other famous pupils of his include Simon Barere, Maria Yudina, as a pianist, he played many of the compositions of his Russian contemporaries. His compositions, which showed the influence of Frédéric Chopin and Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky, include a symphony, pieces for piano, an Allegro de Concert for piano and orchestra. His virtuoso pieces for piano in particular are enjoying something of a renaissance in recent years and he was the uncle of Heinrich Neuhaus and first cousin, once removed of Karol Szymanowski. Free scores by Felix Blumenfeld at the International Music Score Library Project
30.
Vladimir Horowitz
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Vladimir Samoylovich Horowitz was a Russian-born American classical pianist and composer. He was acclaimed for his technique, his tone color. He is recognized as one of the greatest pianists of all time, Vladimir Horowitz was born in Kiev in the Russian Empire. There are unsubstantiated claims that Horowitz was born in Berdychiv, however, Horowitz was the youngest of four children of Samuil Horowitz and Sophia Bodik, who were assimilated Jews. Samuil was an electrical engineer and a distributor of electric motors for German manufacturers. Horowitzs grandfather Joachim was a merchant, belonging to the 1st Guild and this status gave exemption from having to reside in the Pale of Settlement. The 1904 date appeared in reference works during the pianists lifetime. Horowitzs uncle, Alexander, was a pupil and close friend of Alexander Scriabin, as a 10-year-old boy, it was arranged for Horowitz to play for Scriabin, who afterwards informed his parents that he was extremely talented. Horowitz received piano instruction from an age, initially from his mother. In 1912 he entered the Kiev Conservatory, where he was taught by Vladimir Puchalsky, Sergei Tarnowsky and his first solo recital was in Kharkiv in 1920. Horowitzs fame grew, and he began to tour Russia where he was often paid with bread, butter and chocolate rather than money. During the 1922–1923 season, he performed 23 concerts of different programs in Petrograd alone. In December 1925, Horowitz immigrated to the West, ostensibly to study with Artur Schnabel in Berlin, privately intending not to return, the 22-year-old pianist had stuffed American dollars and British pound notes into his shoes to finance his initial concerts. On December 18,1925, Horowitz made his first appearance outside his home country and he later played in Paris, London, and New York City. Horowitz gave his United States debut on January 12,1928 and he played Tchaikovskys Piano Concerto No.1 under the direction of Sir Thomas Beecham, who was also making his U. S. debut. Horowitz later commented that he and Beecham had divergent ideas regarding tempos, Horowitzs rapport with his audience was phenomenal. In this debut performance, Horowitz demonstrated an ability to excite his audience. As Downes commented, it has been years since a pianist created such a furor with an audience in this city, in his review of Horowitzs solo recital, Downes characterized the pianists playing as showing most if not all the traits of a great interpreter
31.
Alexander Glazunov
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Alexander Konstantinovich Glazunov was a Russian composer, music teacher, and conductor of the late Russian Romantic period. He continued heading the Conservatory until 1930, though he had left the Soviet Union in 1928, the best-known student under his tenure during the early Soviet years was Dmitri Shostakovich. Glazunov was significant in that he successfully reconciled nationalism and cosmopolitanism in Russian music, while he was the direct successor to Balakirevs nationalism, he tended more towards Borodins epic grandeur while absorbing a number of other influences. These included Rimsky-Korsakovs orchestral virtuosity, Tchaikovskys lyricism and Taneyevs contrapuntal skill, Glazunov was born in Saint Petersburg, the son of a wealthy publisher. He began studying piano at the age of nine and began composing at 11, mily Balakirev, former leader of the nationalist group The Five, recognized Glazunovs talent and brought his work to the attention of Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov. Casually Balakirev once brought me the composition of a fourteen- or fifteen-year-old high-school student and it was an orchestral score written in childish fashion. The boys talent was indubitably clear, Balakirev introduced him to Rimsky-Korsakov shortly afterwards, in December 1879. Rimsky-Korsakov premiered this work in 1882, when Glazunov was 16, Borodin and Stasov, among others, lavishly praised both the work and its composer. Rimsky-Korsakov taught Glazunov as a private student and his musical development progressed not by the day, but literally by the hour, Rimsky-Korsakov wrote. The nature of their relationship also changed, by the spring of 1881, Rimsky-Korsakov considered Glazunov more of a junior colleague than a student. More important than this praise was that among the works admirers was a timber merchant. Belyayev was introduced to Glazunovs music by Anatoly Lyadov and would take a keen interest in the musical future. Belyayev took Glazunov on a trip to Western Europe in 1884, Glazunov met Liszt in Weimar, where Glazunovs First Symphony was performed. Also in 1884, Belyayev rented out a hall and hired an orchestra to play Glazunovs First Symphony plus an orchestral suite Glazunov had just composed. Buoyed by the success of the rehearsal, Belyayev decided the following season to give a concert of works by Glazunov. This project grew into the Russian Symphony Concerts, which were inaugurated during the 1886–1887 season, in 1885 Belyayev started his own publishing house in Leipzig, Germany, initially publishing music by Glazunov, Lyadov, Rimsky-Korsakov and Borodin at his own expense. Young composers started appealing for his help, to help select from their offerings, Belyayev asked Glazunov to serve with Rimsky-Korsakov and Lyadov on an advisory council. The group of composers that formed eventually became known at the Belyayev Circle and he had a creative crisis in 1890–1891
32.
Sergei Prokofiev
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Sergei Sergeyevich Prokofiev was a Russian and Soviet composer, pianist and conductor. As the creator of acknowledged masterpieces across numerous genres, he is regarded as one of the major composers of the 20th century. Prokofievs greatest interest, however, was opera, and he composed works in that genre, including The Gambler. Prokofievs one operatic success during his lifetime was The Love for Three Oranges, composed for the Chicago Opera and subsequently performed over the decade in Europe. During that time he married a Spanish singer, Carolina Codina, in the early 1930s, the Great Depression diminished opportunities for Prokofievs ballets and operas to be staged in America and western Europe. He enjoyed some success there – notably with Lieutenant Kijé, Peter and the Wolf, Romeo and Juliet, the Nazi invasion of the USSR spurred him to compose his most ambitious work, an operatic version of Leo Tolstoys War and Peace. Prokofiev was born in 1891 in Sontsovka, a rural estate in the Yekaterinoslav Governorate of the Russian Empire. His father, Sergei Alexeyevich Prokofiev, was an agronomist, Prokofievs mother, Maria, came from a family of former serfs who had been owned by the Sheremetev family, under whose patronage serf-children were taught theatre and arts from an early age. She was described by Reinhold Glière as a woman with beautiful. Who knew how to create an atmosphere of warmth and simplicity about her, after their wedding in the summer of 1877, the Prokofievs had moved to a small estate in the Smolensk governorate. Eventually Sergei Alexeyevich found employment as a engineer, employed by one of his former fellow-students, Dmitri Sontsov. By seven, he had learned to play chess. At the age of nine, he was composing his first opera, The Giant, as well as an overture, unable to arrange that, Tanayev instead arranged for composer and pianist Reinhold Glière to spend the summer of 1902 in Sontsovka teaching Prokofiev. The first series of lessons culminated, at the 11-year-old Prokofievs insistence, the following summer, Glière revisited Sontsovka to give further tuition. By 1904, his mother had decided instead on Saint Petersburg, glazunov was so impressed that he urged Prokofievs mother to have her son apply for admission to the Conservatory. He passed the tests and enrolled that year. Several years younger than most of his class, Prokofiev was viewed as eccentric and arrogant and he also shared classes with the composers Boris Asafyev and Nikolai Myaskovsky, the latter becoming a relatively close and lifelong friend. As a member of the Saint Petersburg music scene, Prokofiev developed a reputation as a rebel, while getting praise for his original compositions
33.
Dmitri Shostakovich
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Dmitri Dmitriyevich Shostakovich was a Russian pianist and composer of the Soviet period. He is regarded as one of the composers of the 20th century. Shostakovich achieved fame in the Soviet Union under the patronage of Soviet chief of staff Mikhail Tukhachevsky, nevertheless, he received accolades and state awards and served in the Supreme Soviet of the RSFSR and the Supreme Soviet of the Soviet Union. A polystylist, Shostakovich developed a voice, combining a variety of different musical techniques into his works. Shostakovichs orchestral works include 15 symphonies and six concerti and his chamber output includes 15 string quartets, a piano quintet, two piano trios, and two pieces for string octet. His solo piano works include two sonatas, an set of preludes, and a later set of 24 preludes and fugues. Born at Podolskaya street in Saint Petersburg, Russia, Shostakovich was the second of three children of Dmitri Boleslavovich Shostakovich and Sofiya Vasilievna Kokoulina, Shostakovichs paternal grandfather, originally surnamed Szostakowicz, was of Polish Roman Catholic descent, but his immediate forebears came from Siberia. When his term of exile ended, Szostakowicz decided to remain in Siberia and he eventually became a successful banker in Irkutsk and raised a large family. His son, Dmitri Boleslavovich Shostakovich, the father, was born in exile in Narim in 1875 and studied physics and mathematics in Saint Petersburg University. He then went to work as an engineer under Dmitri Mendeleev at the Bureau of Weights, in 1903 he married another Siberian transplant to the capital, Sofiya Vasilievna Kokoulina, one of six children born to a Russian Siberian native. Their son, Dmitri Dmitriyevich Shostakovich, displayed significant musical talent after he began lessons with his mother at the age of nine. In 1918 he wrote a march in memory of two leaders of the Kadet party, murdered by Bolshevik sailors. In 1919, at the age of thirteen, he was allowed to enter the Petrograd Conservatory, then headed by Alexander Glazunov, Shostakovich also attended Alexander Ossovskys history of music classes. Steinberg tried to guide Shostakovich in the path of the great Russian composers and he also suffered for his perceived lack of political zeal, and initially failed his exam in Marxist methodology in 1926. His first major achievement was the First Symphony, written as his graduation piece at the age of nineteen. After graduation, Shostakovich initially embarked on a career as concert pianist and composer. He nevertheless won a mention at the First International Chopin Piano Competition in Warsaw in 1927. He explained the disappointment at the competition to suffering from appendicitis and he later had his appendix removed in April 1927
34.
May Day
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May Day is a public holiday usually celebrated on May 1. It is an ancient northern hemisphere spring festival and it is also a traditional spring holiday in many cultures. Dances, singing, and cake are usually part of the celebrations that the day includes, in the late 19th century, May Day was chosen as the date for International Workers Day by the Socialists and Communists of the Second International to commemorate the Haymarket affair in Chicago. International Workers Day may also be referred to as May Day and it is also associated with the Gaelic Beltane, most commonly held on April 30. The day was a summer holiday in many pre-Christian European pagan cultures. While February 1 was the first day of spring, May 1 was the first day of summer, hence, as Europe became Christianised, the pagan holidays lost their religious character and May Day changed into a popular secular celebration. A significant celebration of May Day occurs in Germany where it is one of days on which St. Walburga. The secular versions of May Day, observed in Europe and America, may be best known for their traditions of dancing around the maypole and crowning the Queen of May. Fading in popularity since the late 20th century is the giving of May baskets, small baskets of sweets or flowers, usually left anonymously on neighbours doorsteps. May 1 is also one of two feast days of the Catholic patron saint of workers St Joseph the Worker, a carpenter, husband to Mother Mary, and surrogate father of Jesus. Replacing another feast to St. Joseph, this date was chosen by Pope Pius XII in 1955 as a counterpoint to the communist International Workers Day celebrations on May Day. In the late 20th century, many neopagans began reconstructing traditions, traditional English May Day rites and celebrations include crowning a May Queen and celebrations involving a maypole. Historically, Morris dancing has been linked to May Day celebrations, much of this tradition derives from the pagan Anglo-Saxon customs held during Þrimilci-mōnaþ along with many Celtic traditions. May Day has been a day of festivities throughout the centuries. May Day is most associated with towns and villages celebrating springtime fertility and revelry with village fetes, seeding has been completed by this date and it was convenient to give farm labourers a day off. Perhaps the most significant of the traditions is the maypole, around which traditional dancers circle with ribbons, the spring bank holiday on the first Monday in May was created in 1978, May Day itself – May 1 – is not a public holiday in England. Unlike the other Bank Holidays and common law holidays, the first Monday in May is taken off from schools by itself and this is because it has no Christian significance and does not otherwise fit into the usual school holiday pattern. May Day was abolished and its celebration banned by Puritan parliaments during the Interregnum, may 1,1707, was the day the Act of Union came into effect, joining England and Scotland to form the Kingdom of Great Britain
35.
The Storming of the Winter Palace
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The Storming of the Winter Palace was a 1920 mass spectacle, based on historical events that took place in Petrograd during the 1917 October Revolution. Taking place on the anniversary of the revolution, it was directed by Nikolai Evreinov and was subtitled a mass action. The sets were designed by Yuri Annenkov, the spectacle was staged outside the former Tsarist Winter Palace where the Provisional Government was meeting at the time of the Bolshevik revolution. Its performers included 125 ballet dancers,100 circus people,1,750 supernumeraries and students,200 women,260 secondary actors, there were also tanks and armoured cars involved. The mass spectacle form took the pre-revolutionary Symbolist utopias of ritual theatre, kerensky leaps to a car for an escape, and is pursued along a path between the two large groups of spectators by trucks full of the Red Guard waving bayonets, to the Palace. Silhouettes struggle in the windows of the Palace, until the Red Army is finally successful, a cannon fired from the cruiser Aurora and fireworks herald the victory of the October Revolution. Theatre as Action, Soviet Russian Avant-Garde Aesthetics, berkeley, U of California P. ISBN0520076907
36.
Silent film
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A silent film is a film with no synchronized recorded sound, especially with no spoken dialogue. The silent film era lasted from 1895 to 1936, in silent films for entertainment, the dialogue is transmitted through muted gestures, mime and title cards which contain a written indication of the plot or key dialogue. During silent films, a pianist, theatre organist, or, in large cities, pianists and organists would either play from sheet music or improvise, an orchestra would play from sheet music. The term silent film is therefore a retronym—that is, a term created to distinguish something retroactively, the early films with sound, starting with The Jazz Singer in 1927, were referred to as talkies, sound films, or talking pictures. A September 2013 report by the United States Library of Congress announced that a total of 70% of American silent feature films are believed to be completely lost, the earliest precursors of film began with image projection through the use of a device known as the magic lantern. This utilized a glass lens, a shutter and a persistent light source, such as a powerful lantern and these slides were originally hand-painted, but still photographs were used later on after the technological advent of photography in the nineteenth century. The invention of a practical photography apparatus preceded cinema by only fifty years, the next significant step towards film creation was the development of an understanding of image movement. Simulations of movement date as far back as to 1828 and only four years after Paul Roget discovered the phenomenon he called Persistence of Vision. This experience was further demonstrated through Rogets introduction of the thaumatrope, the first projected primary proto-movie was made by Eadweard Muybridge between 1877 and 1880. Muybridge set up a row of cameras along a racetrack and timed image exposures to capture the many stages of a horses gallop, the oldest surviving film was created by Louis Le Prince in 1888. It was a film of people walking in Oakwood streets garden. Edison also made a business of selling Kinetograph and Kinetoscope equipment, due to Edisons lack of securing an international patent on his film inventions, similar devices were invented around the world. The Lumière brothers, for example, created the Cinématographe in France, the Cinématographe proved to be a more portable and practical device than both of Edisons as it combined a camera, film processor and projector in one unit. In contrast to Edisons peepshow-style kinetoscope, which one person could watch through a viewer. Their first film, Sortie de lusine Lumière de Lyon, shot in 1894, is considered the first true motion picture, the invention of celluloid film, which was strong and flexible, greatly facilitated the making of motion pictures. This film was 35 mm wide and pulled using four sprocket holes and this doomed the cinematograph, which could only use film with just one sprocket hole. From the very beginnings of film production, the art of motion pictures grew into maturity in the silent era. Silent filmmakers pioneered the art form to the extent that virtually every style, the silent era was also pioneering era from a technical point of view
37.
Russian Revolution
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The Russian Revolution was a pair of revolutions in Russia in 1917, which dismantled the Tsarist autocracy and led to the eventual rise of the Soviet Union. The Russian Empire collapsed with the abdication of Emperor Nicholas II, in the second revolution that October, the Provisional Government was removed and replaced with a communist state. The February Revolution was a revolution focused around Petrograd, then capital of Russia, in the chaos, members of the Imperial parliament assumed control of the country, forming the Russian Provisional Government. The army leadership felt they did not have the means to suppress the revolution, the February Revolution took place in the context of heavy military setbacks during the First World War, which left much of the Russian Army in a state of mutiny. During this chaotic period there were frequent mutinies, protests and many strikes, when the Provisional Government chose to continue fighting the war with Germany, the Bolsheviks and other socialist factions campaigned for stopping the conflict. The Bolsheviks turned workers militias under their control into the Red Guards over which they exerted substantial control, the Bolsheviks appointed themselves as leaders of various government ministries and seized control of the countryside, establishing the Cheka to quash dissent. To end Russia’s participation in the First World War, the Bolshevik leaders signed the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk with Germany in March 1918, soon after, civil war erupted among the Reds, the Whites, the independence movements and the non-Bolshevik socialists. It continued for years, during which the Bolsheviks defeated both the Whites and all rival socialists. In this way, the Revolution paved the way for the creation of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics in 1922, the Russian Revolution of 1905 was said to be a major factor to the February Revolutions of 1917. The events of Bloody Sunday triggered a line of protests, a council of workers called the St. Petersburg Soviet was created in all this chaos, and the beginning of a communist political protest had begun. World War I prompted a Russian outcry directed at Tsar Nicholas II and it was another major factor contributing to the retaliation of the Russian Communists against their royal opponents. However, the problems were merely administrative, and not industrial as Germany was producing great amounts of munitions whilst constantly fighting on two major battlefronts, the war also developed a weariness in the city, owing to a lack of food in response to the disruption of agriculture. Food scarcity had become a problem in Russia, but the cause of this did not lie in any failure of the harvests. As a result, they tended to hoard their grain and to revert to subsistence farming, thus the cities were constantly short of food. At the same time rising prices led to demands for wages in the factories. The outcome of all this, however, was a criticism of the government rather than any war-weariness. The original fever of excitement, which had caused the name of St. Heavy losses during the war also strengthened thoughts that Tsar Nicholas II was unfit to rule, the Liberals were now better placed to voice their complaints, since they were participating more fully through a variety of voluntary organizations
38.
Ferruccio Busoni
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Ferruccio Busoni was an Italian composer, pianist, conductor, editor, writer, and teacher. Busoni was born in Empoli, just south of Florence, he was the son of professional musicians, initially trained by his father, he later studied at the Vienna Conservatory and then with Wilhelm Mayer and Carl Reinecke. In the ensuing years, after brief periods teaching in Helsinki and Moscow, he devoted himself to composing, teaching, and touring as a virtuoso pianist in Europe and his writings on music were influential, they covered not only aesthetics but considerations of microtones and other innovative topics. He was based in Berlin from 1894 but spent much of World War I in Switzerland, Busoni was an outstanding pianist from an early age. His visits to America led to interest in North American indigenous tribal melodies which were reflected in some of his works. His compositions include works for piano, including a monumental Piano Concerto and his other compositions include chamber music, vocal and orchestral works, and also operas, one of which, Doktor Faust, was left unfinished at the time of his death. Busoni died in Berlin at the age of 58, Busoni was born in the Tuscan town of Empoli, the only child of two professional musicians, Ferdinando, a clarinettist, and Anna, a pianist. The family shortly moved to Trieste. A child prodigy, largely taught by his father, he began performing and composing at the age of seven, commercially promoted by his parents in a series of further concerts, he was later to say I never had a childhood. In 1875 he made his concerto début playing Mozarts Piano Concerto No.24, from the ages of nine to eleven, with the help of a patron, Busoni studied at the Vienna Conservatory. His first performances in Vienna were glowingly received by the critic Eduard Hanslick, in 1877 he heard the playing of Franz Liszt, and was introduced to the composer who admired his performance. In the following year he composed a four-movement concerto for piano, leaving Vienna he had a brief period of study in Graz with Wilhelm Mayer, and conducted a performance of his own composition Stabat Mater, Op.55 in the composers initial numbering sequence, in 1879. Other early pieces were published at time, including settings of Ave Maria. Busoni was elected in 1881 to the Accademia Filharmonica of Bologna, in the mid 1880s he was based in Vienna where he met with Karl Goldmark and helped to prepare the vocal score for the latters 1886 opera, Merlin. He also met Johannes Brahms, to whom he dedicated two sets of piano Etudes, and who recommended him to study in Leipzig with Carl Reinecke. During this period he supported himself by giving recitals, and also by the support of a patron. He also continued to compose, and made his first attempt at an opera, Sigune, in a letter he describes how, finding himself penniless in Leipzig, he appealed to the publisher Schwalm to take his compositions. Schwalm demurred but said he would commission a fantasy on Peter Corneliuss opera The Barber of Baghdad for fifty marks down, and a hundred on completion
39.
Egon Petri
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Egon Petri was a classical pianist. Egon Petris family was Dutch, he was born a Dutch citizen, but in Hanover, Germany, and grew up in Dresden and his father, a professional violinist, taught him to play the violin. While still a teen, Petri played with the Dresden Court Orchestra and he studied composition and theory with Hermann Kretzschmar and Felix Draeseke at the Dresden Conservatory. From an early age Petri had also taken piano lessons and eventually, with encouragement from Ignacy Jan Paderewski and Ferruccio Busoni. He studied with Busoni, who influenced him. He considered himself more a disciple than a student of Busonis, under Busonis influence, Petri focused on the works of Johann Sebastian Bach and Franz Liszt, composers who, along with Busoni himself, remained at the centre of his repertoire. During World War I, Petri moved with Busoni to Switzerland, in the 1920s, Petri taught in Berlin, his students included Victor Borge, Stanley Gardner, Jan Hoffman, Gunnar Johansen, and Vitya Vronsky. In 1923 he became the first non-Soviet soloist to play in the Soviet Union, in 1927 he moved to Zakopane, Poland, where, until the outbreak of World War II in 1939, he conducted summer and early fall sessions and master-classes for selected piano students. From 1929 he made recordings for labels, including Columbia Records. Petri escaped from Poland the day before the German invasion in September 1939 and he moved to the United States, working first at Cornell University and later at Mills College in Oakland, California. He pointedly refused ever to play in Germany again, in 1955 he became a naturalised American citizen. Though a Dutch citizen until he was 74, he never lived in the Netherlands and was not at ease with the Dutch language, on one occasion when he performed for Queen Wilhelmina, they spoke German. He was fluent in German, English, French, Italian, Polish and he was an influential figure among many pianists of the mid-20th century. His international students included Earl Wild, Ozan Marsh, and John Ogdon, a big man, Petri had a superb technique and a powerful sonority, and was a superlative exponent of the larger works of Beethoven, Liszt, and Brahms. He was also a proponent of new music, Petri died in 1962 in Berkeley, California
40.
Franz Liszt
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Franz Liszt was a prolific 19th-century Hungarian composer, virtuoso pianist, conductor, music teacher, arranger, organist, philanthropist, author, nationalist and a Franciscan tertiary. Liszt gained renown in Europe during the nineteenth century for his prodigious virtuosic skill as a pianist. As a composer, Liszt was one of the most prominent representatives of the New German School and he left behind an extensive and diverse body of work in which he influenced his forward-looking contemporaries and anticipated many 20th-century ideas and trends. Franz Liszt was born to Anna Liszt and Adam Liszt on October 22,1811, in the village of Doborján in Sopron County, in the Kingdom of Hungary, Liszts father played the piano, violin, cello and guitar. He had been in the service of Prince Nikolaus II Esterházy and knew Haydn, Hummel, at age six, Franz began listening attentively to his fathers piano playing and showed an interest in both sacred and Romani music. Adam began teaching him the piano at age seven, and Franz began composing in an elementary manner when he was eight and he appeared in concerts at Sopron and Pressburg in October and November 1820 at age 9. After the concerts, a group of wealthy sponsors offered to finance Franzs musical education in Vienna, There Liszt received piano lessons from Carl Czerny, who in his own youth had been a student of Beethoven and Hummel. He also received lessons in composition from Antonio Salieri, then director of the Viennese court. Liszts public debut in Vienna on December 1,1822, at a concert at the Landständischer Saal, was a great success and he was greeted in Austrian and Hungarian aristocratic circles and also met Beethoven and Schubert. In spring 1823, when his one-year leave of absence came to an end, Adam Liszt therefore took his leave of the Princes services. At the end of April 1823, the returned to Hungary for the last time. At the end of May 1823, the family went to Vienna again, towards the end of 1823 or early 1824, Liszts first composition to be published, his Variation on a Waltz by Diabelli, appeared as Variation 24 in Part II of Vaterländischer Künstlerverein. Liszts inclusion in the Diabelli project—he was described in it as an 11 year old boy, born in Hungary—was almost certainly at the instigation of Czerny, his teacher, Liszt was the only child composer in the anthology. After his fathers death in 1827, Liszt moved to Paris, to earn money, Liszt gave lessons in piano playing and composition, often from early morning until late at night. His students were scattered across the city and he often had to long distances. Because of this, he kept uncertain hours and also took up smoking, the following year he fell in love with one of his pupils, Caroline de Saint-Cricq, the daughter of Charles Xs minister of commerce, Pierre de Saint-Cricq. Her father, however, insisted that the affair be broken off, Liszt fell very ill, to the extent that an obituary notice was printed in a Paris newspaper, and he underwent a long period of religious doubts and pessimism. He again stated a wish to join the Church but was dissuaded this time by his mother and he had many discussions with the Abbé de Lamennais, who acted as his spiritual father, and also with Chrétien Urhan, a German-born violinist who introduced him to the Saint-Simonists
41.
Berlin Philharmonic
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The Berlin Philharmonic, is an orchestra based in Berlin, Germany and is consistently ranked as one of the best orchestras in the world. The BPO supports several music ensembles. The orchestra was renamed and reorganized under the management of Hermann Wolff in 1882. Their new conductor was Ludwig von Brenner, in 1887 Hans von Bülow, one of the most esteemed conductors in the world, programmes of this period show that the orchestra possessed only 46 strings, much less than the Wagnerian ideal of 64. In 1895, Arthur Nikisch became chief conductor, and was succeeded in 1923 by Wilhelm Furtwängler, despite several changes in leadership, the orchestra continued to perform throughout World War II. After Furtwängler fled to Switzerland in 1945, Leo Borchard became chief conductor and this arrangement lasted only a few months, as Borchard was accidentally shot and killed by the American forces occupying Berlin. Sergiu Celibidache then took over as conductor for seven years. Furtwängler returned in 1952 and conducted the orchestra until his death in 1954 and his successor was Herbert von Karajan, who led the orchestra from 1955 until his resignation in April 1989, only months before his death. Under him, the made a vast number of recordings and toured widely. The orchestra hired its first female musician, violinist Madeleine Carruzzo, however, Karajans hiring in September 1982 of Sabine Meyer, the first female wind player to the orchestra, led to controversy when the orchestra voted 73 to 4 not to admit her to the orchestra. After Karajan stood down from the orchestra in 1989, the offered the chief conductorship to Carlos Kleiber. In 1989, the orchestra elected Claudio Abbado as its principal conductor. He expanded the repertoire beyond the core classical and romantic works into more modern 20th-century works. Abbado stepped down from the conductorship of the orchestra in 2002. During the post-unification period, the orchestra encountered financial problems resulting from stress in the city of Berlin. In 2006, the Orchestra Academy of the Berlin Philharmonic established the Claudio Abbado Composition Prize in Abbados honour, in June 1999, the musicians elected Sir Simon Rattle as their next chief conductor. Rattle made it a condition of his signing with the Berlin Philharmonic that it be turned into a public foundation, with the power to make its own artistic. This required a change to state law, which was approved in 2001, Rattles contract with the orchestra was initially through 2012
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Paris
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Paris is the capital and most populous city of France. It has an area of 105 square kilometres and a population of 2,229,621 in 2013 within its administrative limits, the agglomeration has grown well beyond the citys administrative limits. By the 17th century, Paris was one of Europes major centres of finance, commerce, fashion, science, and the arts, and it retains that position still today. The aire urbaine de Paris, a measure of area, spans most of the Île-de-France region and has a population of 12,405,426. It is therefore the second largest metropolitan area in the European Union after London, the Metropole of Grand Paris was created in 2016, combining the commune and its nearest suburbs into a single area for economic and environmental co-operation. Grand Paris covers 814 square kilometres and has a population of 7 million persons, the Paris Region had a GDP of €624 billion in 2012, accounting for 30.0 percent of the GDP of France and ranking it as one of the wealthiest regions in Europe. The city is also a rail, highway, and air-transport hub served by two international airports, Paris-Charles de Gaulle and Paris-Orly. Opened in 1900, the subway system, the Paris Métro. It is the second busiest metro system in Europe after Moscow Metro, notably, Paris Gare du Nord is the busiest railway station in the world outside of Japan, with 262 millions passengers in 2015. In 2015, Paris received 22.2 million visitors, making it one of the top tourist destinations. The association football club Paris Saint-Germain and the rugby union club Stade Français are based in Paris, the 80, 000-seat Stade de France, built for the 1998 FIFA World Cup, is located just north of Paris in the neighbouring commune of Saint-Denis. Paris hosts the annual French Open Grand Slam tennis tournament on the red clay of Roland Garros, Paris hosted the 1900 and 1924 Summer Olympics and is bidding to host the 2024 Summer Olympics. The name Paris is derived from its inhabitants, the Celtic Parisii tribe. Thus, though written the same, the name is not related to the Paris of Greek mythology. In the 1860s, the boulevards and streets of Paris were illuminated by 56,000 gas lamps, since the late 19th century, Paris has also been known as Panam in French slang. Inhabitants are known in English as Parisians and in French as Parisiens and they are also pejoratively called Parigots. The Parisii, a sub-tribe of the Celtic Senones, inhabited the Paris area from around the middle of the 3rd century BC. One of the areas major north-south trade routes crossed the Seine on the île de la Cité, this place of land and water trade routes gradually became a town
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Morris Gest
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Morris Gest, also Maurice Guest, was an American theatrical producer of the early 20th century. Moishe Gershnowitz was born near Vilna, the son of Leon, through his mother he was a member of the middle-class Michliszanski clan which included his cousin, later renamed as Bernard Berenson, the art historian. A couple were emigrating to Boston and agreed to him with them in 1890. Later, he attracted the attention of Mr. Thompson, for whom he worked in the library of the United States District Court who saw to it that he went to school. The theatre was the first job that came Gests way and he gained experience in most of the involved in Bostons theatres. In 1901, he went to New York and worked for Oscar Hammerstein at the Manhattan Opera House and was promoted to foreign representative and he also produced Broadway shows such as Morris Gests Midnight Whirl with music by George Gershwin and lyrics by Buddy DeSylva. After some false starts in production by himself, he teamed up with F. Ray Comstock, in 1922 and 1923, Gest and Comstock presented Nikita Balieffs company La Chauve-Souris. They also presented the Moscow Art Theatre directed by Konstantin Stanislavski which reigned over New York drama despite the handicap of Russian dialogue, in 1923, he organised the last U. S. tour of Eleanor Duse. In 1924, he brought Max Reinhardt from Germany to stage The Miracle to which Gest brought his own talents in publicity and these were well needed as the heavy costs of the sets, costumes, and cast of 175 could have meant financial disaster. The Great Depression and the parting from Comstock seem to have curbed his productions for five years but there was a last production, the same year marked the onset of a nervous breakdown. However he recovered sufficiently to be involved in the Morris Gests Little Miracle Town and this was in connection with the 1939 New York Worlds Fair. His widow, Reina, the daughter of David Belasco, died in 1948, interview with Morris Gest, The American Hebrew,29 December 1922 Charles B. About Geraldine Farrar, How the most famous prima-donna in the world was secured for the photoplays, the man who turned the trick tells the story
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Benjamin Franklin Keith
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Benjamin Franklin Keith was an American vaudeville theater owner, highly influential in the evolution of variety theater into vaudeville. Keith was born in Hillsboro Bridge, New Hampshire and he joined the circus after attending Van Amburgs Circus and then worked at Bunnells Museum in New York City in the early 1860s. He later joined P. T. Barnum and then joined the Forepaugh Circus, before he opened a museum in Boston, in 1883. In 1885 he joined Edward Franklin Albee II, who was selling circus tickets and their opening show was on July 6,1885. The theatre was one of the early adopters of the variety show which ran from 10,00 in the morning until 11,00 at night. Previously, shows ran at fixed intervals with several hours of downtime between shows, with the continuous show, you could enter the theatre at any time, and stay until you reached the point in the show where you arrived. Albee and Keith opened the Union Square Theatre in New York City and they had obtained the exclusive American rights to the Lumière apparatus and their film output, and the first showing was on June 29,1896. They then opened theatres in Philadelphia, and Boston, and then smaller theatres in the East and Midwest of the United States and they signed a contract with Biograph Studios in 1896 which lasted until July 1905 when they switched to Edison Studios as their supplier of motion pictures. Keith and Albee merged their theatre circuit with Frederick Freeman Proctor in June 1906, Keith withdrew from business in 1909 and married for a second time on October 29,1913, to Ethel Bird Chase. She was 26 years old and Keith was 67, Keith died at the Breakers Hotel in Palm Beach, Florida in 1914. After his son, Andrew Keith, died in 1918, control of the went to Albee. In 1928, the B. F. Keith Circuit merged with the Orpheum Circuit to form the Keith-Albee-Orpheum corporation in Marysville, in a few months, this organization became the major motion picture studio Radio-Keith-Orpheum. Also in 1928 the B. F. Keith Memorial Theatre opened in Boston, black Like You, Blackface, Whiteface, Insult and Imitation in American Popular Culture
