1.
Leonid Brezhnev
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Leonid Ilyich Brezhnev was the General Secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, presiding over the country from 1964 until his death in 1982. His eighteen-year term as General Secretary was second only to that of Joseph Stalin in duration, during Brezhnevs rule, the global influence of the Soviet Union grew dramatically, in part because of the expansion of the Soviet military during this time. His tenure as leader was marked by the beginning of an era of economic, Brezhnev was born in Kamenskoye into a Russian workers family in 1906. After graduating from the Dniprodzerzhynsk Metallurgical Technicum, he became an engineer in the iron and steel industry. He joined Komsomol in 1923, and in 1929 became a member of the CPSU. He was drafted into military service during World War II. While at the helm of the USSR, Brezhnev pushed for détente between the Eastern and Western countries. However, in December 1981 he decided not to intervene in Poland, instead allowing the countrys government to impose martial law. After years of declining health, Brezhnev died on 10 November 1982 and was succeeded in his post as General Secretary by Yuri Andropov. Brezhnev had fostered a cult of personality, although not nearly to the degree as Stalin. Mikhail Gorbachev, who would lead the USSR from 1985 to 1991, denounced his legacy, in spite of this, opinion polls in Russia show Brezhnev to be the most popular Russian leader of the 20th century. Brezhnev was born on 19 December 1906 in Kamianske in Ukraine, to metalworker Ilya Yakovlevich Brezhnev and his wife and his parents used to live in Brezhnevo before moving to Kamenskoe. Brezhnevs ethnicity was specified as Ukrainian in some documents, including his passport, like many youths in the years after the Russian Revolution of 1917, he received a technical education, at first in land management where he started as a land surveyor and then in metallurgy. He graduated from the Dniprodzerzhynsk Metallurgical Technicum in 1935 and became an engineer in the iron. Brezhnev joined the Communist Party youth organisation, the Komsomol, in 1923, in 1935 and 1936, Brezhnev served his compulsory military service, and after taking courses at a tank school, he served as a political commissar in a tank factory. Later in 1936, he director of the Dniprodzerzhynsk Metallurgical Technicum. In 1936, he was transferred to the center of Dnipropetrovsk and, in 1939, he became Party Secretary in Dnipropetrovsk. As a survivor of Stalins Great Purge of 1937–39, he was able to quickly as the purges created numerous openings in the senior and middle ranks of the Party
2.
Vladimir Lenin's Cabinet
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The Government of the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic was known officially as the Council of Peoples Commissars, the Council of Ministers and the Council of Ministers – Government. In 1922 state powers of the institution were technically somewhat superseded by the Council of Peoples Commissars of USSR, by September 1917, the councils of workers, peasants and soldiers acquired considerable political and military power. The leaders of the Petrograd Soviet conspired to overthrow the Russian Provisional Government, the uprising started on 7 November 1917, the government was formally called the Council of Peoples Commissars, abbreviated as Sovnarkom. It was Leon Trotsky who devised the council and commissar names, thereby avoiding the more bourgeois terms, minister, the Peoples Commissars functioned as government ministers, a ministry was therefore called a Peoples Commissariat. The role and structure of the Sovnarkom was formalized in the 1918 Constitution of the RSFSR, the Sovnarkom of the RSFSR was responsible to the Congress of Soviets for the general administration of the affairs of the state. The constitution enabled the Sovnarkom to issue decrees carrying the force of law when the Congress was not in session. The Congress then routinely approved these decrees at its next session, each Peoples Commissar was head of commissariat and had several deputies and a collegium which functioned as a deliberative body to advise the commissar. The Chairman of the Council of Peoples Commissars, also elected by the Congress, had a similar to that of a prime minister. The first Chairman of the Sovnarkom was Vladimir Lenin, the first council elected by the Second All-Russian congress was composed as follows, The Council of Peoples Commissars was renamed Council of Ministers in 1946. The Consul General at Moscow to the Secretary of State The decree of the Council of the Peoples Commissars on the
3.
Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic
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The Republic comprised sixteen autonomous republics, five autonomous oblasts, ten autonomous okrugs, six krais, and forty oblasts. Russians formed the largest ethnic group, the capital of the Russian SFSR was Moscow and the other major urban centers included Leningrad, Novosibirsk, Yekaterinburg, Nizhny Novgorod and Samara. The Russian Soviet Republic was proclaimed on November 7,1917 as a sovereign state, the first Constitution was adopted in 1918. In 1922 the Russian SFSR signed the Treaty on the Creation of the USSR, the economy of Russia became heavily industrialized, accounting for about two-thirds of the electricity produced in the USSR. It was, by 1961, the third largest producer of petroleum due to new discoveries in the Volga-Urals region and Siberia, trailing only the United States and Saudi Arabia. In 1974, there were 475 institutes of education in the republic providing education in 47 languages to some 23,941,000 students. A network of territorially organized public-health services provided health care, the effects of market policies led to the failure of many enterprises and total instability by 1990. On June 12,1990, the Congress of Peoples Deputies adopted the Declaration of State Sovereignty, on June 12,1991, Boris Yeltsin was elected the first President. On December 8,1991, heads of Russia, Ukraine, the agreement declared dissolution of the USSR by its founder states and established the Commonwealth of Independent States. On December 12, the agreement was ratified by the Russian Parliament, therefore Russian SFSR denounced the Treaty on the Creation of the USSR and de facto declared Russias independence from the USSR. On December 25,1991, following the resignation of Mikhail Gorbachev as president of the Soviet Union, on December 26,1991, the USSR was self-dissolved by the Soviet of Nationalities, which by that time was the only functioning house of the Supreme Soviet. After dissolution of the USSR, Russia declared that it assumed the rights and obligations of the dissolved central Soviet government, the new Russian constitution, adopted on December 12,1993 after a constitutional crisis, abolished the Soviet system of government in its entirety. Initially, the state did not have a name and wasnt recognized by neighboring countries for five months. Meanwhile, anti-Bolsheviks coined the mocking label Sovdepia for the nascent state of the Soviets of Workers, on January 25,1918 the third meeting of the All-Russian Congress of Soviets renamed the unrecognized state the Soviet Russian Republic. The Treaty of Brest-Litovsk was signed on March 3,1918, on July 10,1918, the Russian Constitution of 1918 renamed the country the Russian Socialist Federative Soviet Republic. By 1918, during the Russian Civil War, several states within the former Russian Empire seceded, internationally, in 1920, the RSFSR was recognized as an independent state only by Estonia, Finland, Latvia and Lithuania in the Treaty of Tartu and by the short-lived Irish Republic. On December 30,1922, with the creation of the Soviet Union, the final Soviet name for the republic, the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic, was adopted in the Soviet Constitution of 1936. By that time, Soviet Russia had gained roughly the same borders of the old Tsardom of Russia before the Great Northern War of 1700
4.
Mikhail Yasnov
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Mikhail Alekseyevich Yasnov was a Soviet politician. He was Chairman of the Moscow City Executive Committee and head of Moscow in 1950–1956, in 1956–1957 he was the Chairman of the Council of Ministers of the Russian SFSR. Between 1957 and 1966 he was First Deputy Chairman of the Council of Ministers of the RSFSR, in 1950–1954 he was Chairman of the Soviet of the Union, the higher chamber of the Supreme Soviet of the Soviet Union. He was made a Hero of Socialist Labor in 1976, article in the Great Soviet Encyclopedia
5.
First Deputy Premier of the Soviet Union
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A total of 26 individuals had held this post,18 of them held other posts simultaneously with their First Deputy Premiership. The first officeholder was Valerian Kuibyshev, who was inaugurated in 1934 as First Deputy Chairman of the Council of Peoples Commissars, lavrentiy Beria spent the shortest time in office and served for 113 days. A First Deputy Premier was usually given responsibility over one specific area, for example, Kirill Mazurov was responsible for industry, and Dmitry Polyansky was agriculture. However, after Polyanskys departure in 1973 Mazurov was left the sole First Deputy Premier until Tikhonov was appointed in 1976, an officeholder could also be responsible for coordinating the activities of ministries and state committees and other subordinate bodies of the Council of Ministers. If the Premier could not perform his duties one of the First Deputy Premiers would take on the role of acting Premier until the Premiers return. During the late 1970s, when the health of Premier Alexei Kosygin deteriorated, Nikolai Tikhonov, when Tikhonov took command of the Soviet economy, Kosygin served in a standby role. At a Central Committee plenum in June 1980, the Soviet economic development plan was outlined by Tikhonov, there was no First Deputy Premier from 1935 to 1941 because no one was elected to the post. Stalins successor, Malenkov, promoted Bulganin, Beria and Lazar Kaganovich to the post of First Deputy Chairman of the Council of Ministers. In a Council of Minister resolution it was stated that the Premier, the First Deputy Premiers, the Presidium was later expanded to include individuals hand-picked by the Premier. A decree had to be signed by the Premier or a First Deputy Premier, the First Deputy Prime Ministers were members of the Cabinet of Ministers, the executive and administrative body that replaced the Council of Ministers in 1990. Premier of the Soviet Union Deputy Premier of the Soviet Union List of leaders of the Soviet Union
6.
Council of Ministers of the Soviet Union
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The Council of Ministers of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics, was the de jure government comprising the highest executive and administrative body of the Soviet Union from 1946 until 1991. In 1946 the Council of Peoples Commissars was transformed into the Council of Ministers, the council issued declarations and instructions based on and in accordance with applicable laws, which had obligatory jurisdictional power over the territories of all republics within the Union. In 1991 the Council of Ministers was dissolved, and replaced by the newly established Cabinet of Ministers, there were seven chairmen of the Council of Ministers, in effect Premier of the Soviet Union. The Presidium of the Council of Ministers was the collective decision-making body of government, the Council of Peoples Commissars, the Soviet Government, was transformed into the Council of Ministers in March 1946 in all level of governance. At the same time The Peoples Commissariats were transformed into Ministries, malenkov lost the power struggle, and in 1955 he was demoted from his office as Chairman of the Council of Ministers. He was succeeded in his post by Nikolai Bulganin, who in turn was removed and replaced by Khrushchev because of his support for the Anti-Party Group, which had tried to oust Khrushchev in 1957. Kosygin, the Chairman of the Council of Ministers, was in charge of administration while Brezhnev. Kosygin resigned in 1980, to be succeeded by his First Deputy Chairman Nikolai Tikhonov, after five-years service, under the rules laid down by Leonid Brezhnev, Yuri Andropov and Konstantin Chernenko Tikhonov was compelled to retire by Mikhail Gorbachev on 27 September 1985. Tikhonov was succeeded by Nikolai Ryzhkov, Ryzhkov was a half-hearted reformer, and was skeptical towards the de-nationalisation and the monetary reform of 1989, however, he did support the creation of a regulated market economy. In 1991 Ryzhkov was succeeded as Premier by Valentin Pavlov, the Council of Ministers was dissolved and replaced with the newly established Cabinet of Ministers. The Council of Ministers was the head of the executive branch. The Chairman of the Council of Ministers could also recommend people who he found suitable for membership of the Council of Ministers to the Supreme Soviet, the Council of Ministers laid down its functions on each first-convocation of a newly elected Supreme Soviet. Creation of necessary organisations within the Council of Ministers in the fields of economics, socio-cultural development, the Council of Ministers could also issue decrees and resolutions and later on verify their execution. All organisations were obliged to follow the decrees and resolutions issued by the All-Union Council of Ministers, the All-Union Council also had the power to suspend all mandates and decrees issued by itself or organisations subordinate to it. The Council coordinated and directed the work of the republics and union ministries, state committees. In 1946, the All-Union Council of Peoples Commissars became the Council of Ministers, whilst Peoples Commissars and Peoples Commissariats became Ministers, Ministers were important figures in day-to-day decision-making, with 73 percent of them elected full-members of the Central Committee at the 25th Party Congress. A large number of key ministries had been eliminated and replaced by a network of regional and local sovnarkhoz under the supervision of the Supreme Soviet of the National Economy. Khrushchevs economic reform proved disastrous as it severed regional economic relations and was abandoned by the Soviet Government following Khrushchevs ousting in 1964, the year later twenty-eight industrial ministries, eleven All-union and seventeen Union ministries were reestablished
7.
Nikita Khrushchev
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Nikita Sergeyevich Khrushchev was a politician who led the Soviet Union during part of the Cold War. He served as First Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union from 1953 to 1964, Khrushchevs party colleagues removed him from power in 1964, replacing him with Leonid Brezhnev as First Secretary and Alexei Kosygin as Premier. Khrushchev was born in the village of Kalinovka in 1894, close to the border between Russia and Ukraine. He was employed as a metalworker in his youth, and during the Russian Civil War was a political commissar, with the help of Lazar Kaganovich, he worked his way up the Soviet hierarchy. He supported Joseph Stalins purges, and approved thousands of arrests, in 1938, Stalin sent him to govern Ukraine, and he continued the purges there. During what was known in the Soviet Union as the Great Patriotic War, Khrushchev was again a commissar, Khrushchev was present at the bloody defense of Stalingrad, a fact he took great pride in throughout his life. After the war, he returned to Ukraine before being recalled to Moscow as one of Stalins close advisers, in the power struggle triggered by Stalins death in 1953, Khrushchev, after several years, emerged victorious. On 25 February 1956, at the 20th Party Congress, he delivered the Secret Speech, denouncing Stalins purges and his domestic policies, aimed at bettering the lives of ordinary citizens, were often ineffective, especially in agriculture. Hoping eventually to rely on missiles for defense, Khrushchev ordered major cuts in conventional forces. Despite the cuts, Khrushchevs rule saw the most tense years of the Cold War, flaws in Khrushchevs policies eroded his popularity and emboldened potential opponents, who quietly rose in strength and deposed the premier in October 1964. However, he did not suffer the fate of previous losers of Soviet power struggles, and was pensioned off with an apartment in Moscow. His lengthy memoirs were smuggled to the West and published in part in 1970, Khrushchev died in 1971 of heart disease. Khrushchev was born on 15 April 1894, in Kalinovka, a village in what is now Russias Kursk Oblast and his parents, Sergei Khrushchev and Ksenia Khrushcheva, were poor peasants of Russian origin, and had a daughter two years Nikitas junior, Irina. Sergei Khrushchev was employed in a number of positions in the Donbas area of far eastern Ukraine, working as a railwayman, as a miner, and laboring in a brick factory. Wages were much higher in the Donbas than in the Kursk region, Kalinovka was a peasant village, Khrushchevs teacher, Lydia Shevchenko, later stated that she had never seen a village as poor as Kalinovka had been. Nikita worked as a herdsboy from an early age and he was schooled for a total of four years, part in the village parochial school and part under Shevchenkos tutelage in Kalinovkas state school. She urged Nikita to seek education, but family finances did not permit this. In 1908, Sergei Khrushchev moved to the Donbas city of Yuzovka, fourteen-year-old Nikita followed later that year, while Ksenia Khrushcheva and her daughter came after
8.
Alexei Kosygin
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Alexei Nikolayevich Kosygin was a Soviet-Russian statesman during the Cold War. Kosygin was born in the city of Saint Petersburg in 1904 to a Russian working-class family and he was conscripted into the labour army during the Russian Civil War, and after the Red Armys demobilisation in 1921, he worked in Siberia as an industrial manager. Kosygin returned to Leningrad in the early 1930s and worked his way up the Soviet hierarchy, during the Great Patriotic War, Kosygin was a member of the State Defence Committee and was tasked with moving Soviet industry out of territories soon to be overrun by the German Army. He served as Minister of Finance for a year before becoming Minister of Light Industry and later, Stalin removed Kosygin from the Politburo one year before his own death in 1953, intentionally weakening Kosygins position within the Soviet hierarchy. After the power struggle triggered by Stalins death in 1953, Nikita Khrushchev became the new leader, on 20 March 1959, Kosygin was appointed to the position of Chairman of the State Planning Committee, a post he would hold for little more than a year. Kosygin next became First Deputy chairman of the Council of Ministers, when Khrushchev was replaced in 1964, Kosygin and Leonid Brezhnev became Premier and First Secretary respectively. Kosygin, along with Brezhnev and Nikolai Podgorny, the Chairman of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet, was a member of the newly established collective leadership. This reform, along with his open stance on solving the Prague Spring. More conservative members of the top leadership saw some of Kosygins policies as too radical, by the 1970s, Brezhnev had consolidated enough power to stop any radical reform-minded attempts by Kosygin. In 1980, Kosygin retired from due to bad health. Kosygin was born into a Russian working-class family consisting of his father and mother, Nikolai Ilyich and Matrona Alexandrovna, the family lived in Saint Petersburg. Kosygin was baptised one month after his birth on 7 March and he was conscripted into a labour army on the Bolshevik side during the Russian Civil War. After the Red Armys demobilisation in 1921, Kosygin attended the Leningrad Co-operative Technical School and found work in the system of consumer co-operatives in Novosibirsk, Siberia. When asked why he worked in the sector of the economy, Kosygin replied, quoting a slogan of Vladimir Lenin. Kosygin stayed there for six years and he applied for a membership in the Communist Party of the Soviet Union in 1927 and returned to Leningrad in 1930 to study at the Leningrad Textile Institute, he graduated in 1935. After finishing his studies, Kosygin was employed as a textile mill director, in 1940 Kosygin became a Deputy chairman of the Council of Peoples Commissars, and was appointed in 1943 as Chairman of the Council of Peoples Commissars of the Russian SFSR. Kosygin worked for the State Defence Committee during the Great Patriotic War, as Deputy Chairman of the Council of Evacuation, his task was to evacuate industry from territories soon to be overrun by the Germans. He broke the Leningrad Blockade by organising the construction of a supply route, Kosygin was a candidate member of the Politburo from 1946 to 1949, and became a full member toward the end of Joseph Stalins rule, he lost his seat in 1952
9.
Kasimovsky District
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Kasimovsky District is an administrative and municipal district, one of the twenty-five in Ryazan Oblast, Russia. It is located in the north of the oblast, the area of the district is 2,969 square kilometers. Its administrative center is the town of Kasimov, within the framework of administrative divisions, Kasimovsky District is one of the twenty-five in the oblast. The town of Kasimov serves as its center, despite being incorporated separately as a town of oblast significance—an administrative unit with the status equal to that of the districts. As a municipal division, the district is incorporated as Kasimovsky Municipal District, the town of oblast significance of Kasimov is incorporated separately from the district as Kasimov Urban Okrug. Закон №128-ОЗ от12 сентября2007 г, «Об административно-территориальном устройстве Рязанской области», в ред. Закона №56-ОЗ от27 июля2012 г, «О внесении изменения в статью7 Закона Рязанской области Об административно-территориальном устройстве Рязанской области». Вступил в силу через десять дней после официального опубликования, Опубликован, Рязанские ведомости, №273,20 сентября2007 г. Закон №82-ОЗ от7 октября2004 г, «О наделении муниципального образования — Касимовский район статусом муниципального района, об установлении его границ и границ муниципальных образований, входящих в его состав», в ред. Закона №25-ОЗ от12 мая2014 г, «Об изменении статуса муниципального образования – Лашманское городское поселение Касимовского муниципального района и внесении изменений в отдельные законодательные акты Рязанской области». Вступил в силу со дня официального опубликования, Опубликован, Рязанские ведомости, №212–213,14 октября2004 г. Закон №81-ОЗ от7 октября2004 г, «О наделении муниципального образования — город Касимов статусом городского округа и установлении его границ», в ред. Закона №54-ОЗ от8 мая2008 г «Об утверждении границы муниципального образования — городской округ город Касимов», Вступил в силу со дня официального опубликования. Опубликован, Рязанские ведомости, №212–213,14 октября2004 г
10.
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
11.
Moscow
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Moscow is the capital and most populous city of Russia, with 13.2 million residents within the city limits and 17.8 million within the urban area. Moscow has the status of a Russian federal city, Moscow is a major political, economic, cultural, and scientific center of Russia and Eastern Europe, as well as the largest city entirely on the European continent. Moscow is the northernmost and coldest megacity and metropolis on Earth and it is home to the Ostankino Tower, the tallest free standing structure in Europe, the Federation Tower, the tallest skyscraper in Europe, and the Moscow International Business Center. Moscow is situated on the Moskva River in the Central Federal District of European Russia, the city is well known for its architecture, particularly its historic buildings such as Saint Basils Cathedral with its brightly colored domes. Moscow is the seat of power of the Government of Russia, being the site of the Moscow Kremlin, the Moscow Kremlin and Red Square are also one of several World Heritage Sites in the city. Both chambers of the Russian parliament also sit in the city and it is recognized as one of the citys landmarks due to the rich architecture of its 200 stations. In old Russian the word also meant a church administrative district. The demonym for a Moscow resident is москвич for male or москвичка for female, the name of the city is thought to be derived from the name of the Moskva River. There have been proposed several theories of the origin of the name of the river and its cognates include Russian, музга, muzga pool, puddle, Lithuanian, mazgoti and Latvian, mazgāt to wash, Sanskrit, majjati to drown, Latin, mergō to dip, immerse. There exist as well similar place names in Poland like Mozgawa, the original Old Russian form of the name is reconstructed as *Москы, *Mosky, hence it was one of a few Slavic ū-stem nouns. From the latter forms came the modern Russian name Москва, Moskva, in a similar manner the Latin name Moscovia has been formed, later it became a colloquial name for Russia used in Western Europe in the 16th–17th centuries. From it as well came English Muscovy, various other theories, having little or no scientific ground, are now largely rejected by contemporary linguists. The surface similarity of the name Russia with Rosh, an obscure biblical tribe or country, the oldest evidence of humans on the territory of Moscow dates from the Neolithic. Within the modern bounds of the city other late evidence was discovered, on the territory of the Kremlin, Sparrow Hills, Setun River and Kuntsevskiy forest park, etc. The earliest East Slavic tribes recorded as having expanded to the upper Volga in the 9th to 10th centuries are the Vyatichi and Krivichi, the Moskva River was incorporated as part of Rostov-Suzdal into the Kievan Rus in the 11th century. By AD1100, a settlement had appeared on the mouth of the Neglinnaya River. The first known reference to Moscow dates from 1147 as a place of Yuri Dolgoruky. At the time it was a town on the western border of Vladimir-Suzdal Principality
12.
Soviet Union
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The Soviet Union, officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics was a socialist state in Eurasia that existed from 1922 to 1991. It was nominally a union of national republics, but its government. The Soviet Union had its roots in the October Revolution of 1917 and this established the Russian Socialist Federative Soviet Republic and started the Russian Civil War between the revolutionary Reds and the counter-revolutionary Whites. In 1922, the communists were victorious, forming the Soviet Union with the unification of the Russian, Transcaucasian, Ukrainian, following Lenins death in 1924, a collective leadership and a brief power struggle, Joseph Stalin came to power in the mid-1920s. Stalin suppressed all opposition to his rule, committed the state ideology to Marxism–Leninism. As a result, the country underwent a period of rapid industrialization and collectivization which laid the foundation for its victory in World War II and postwar dominance of Eastern Europe. Shortly before World War II, Stalin signed the Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact agreeing to non-aggression with Nazi Germany, in June 1941, the Germans invaded the Soviet Union, opening the largest and bloodiest theater of war in history. Soviet war casualties accounted for the highest proportion of the conflict in the effort of acquiring the upper hand over Axis forces at battles such as Stalingrad. Soviet forces eventually captured Berlin in 1945, the territory overtaken by the Red Army became satellite states of the Eastern Bloc. The Cold War emerged by 1947 as the Soviet bloc confronted the Western states that united in the North Atlantic Treaty Organization in 1949. Following Stalins death in 1953, a period of political and economic liberalization, known as de-Stalinization and Khrushchevs Thaw, the country developed rapidly, as millions of peasants were moved into industrialized cities. The USSR took a lead in the Space Race with Sputnik 1, the first ever satellite, and Vostok 1. In the 1970s, there was a brief détente of relations with the United States, the war drained economic resources and was matched by an escalation of American military aid to Mujahideen fighters. In the mid-1980s, the last Soviet leader, Mikhail Gorbachev, sought to reform and liberalize the economy through his policies of glasnost. The goal was to preserve the Communist Party while reversing the economic stagnation, the Cold War ended during his tenure, and in 1989 Soviet satellite countries in Eastern Europe overthrew their respective communist regimes. This led to the rise of strong nationalist and separatist movements inside the USSR as well, in August 1991, a coup détat was attempted by Communist Party hardliners. It failed, with Russian President Boris Yeltsin playing a role in facing down the coup. On 25 December 1991, Gorbachev resigned and the twelve constituent republics emerged from the dissolution of the Soviet Union as independent post-Soviet states
13.
Soviet people
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Soviet people or Citizens of the USSR was an umbrella demonym for the population of the Soviet Union. Initially used as a reference to the Soviet population, it was eventually declared to be a new historical, social and international unity of people. Through the history of the Soviet Union, both doctrine and practice regarding ethnic distinctions within the Soviet population varied over time, minority national cultures were not completely abolished in the Soviet Union. By Soviet definition, national cultures were to be socialist by content and national by form, to be used to promote the official aims, the fifth record was the section of the obligatory internal passport document which stated the citizens ethnicity. The 24th Congress of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union finalized this definition, according to the 2010 Russian Census 27,000 Russians identified themselves as members of the Soviet people. Homo Sovieticus Melting pot New Soviet man Orthodoxy, Autocracy, and Nationality Rootless cosmopolitan Russification Zhonghua minzu, the equivalent notion in the Peoples Republic of China Yugoslavs
14.
Communist Party of the Soviet Union
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The Communist Party of the Soviet Union, abbreviated in English as CPSU, was the founding and ruling political party of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. The party was founded in 1912 by the Bolsheviks, a group led by Vladimir Lenin which seized power in the aftermath of the October Revolution of 1917. The party was dissolved on 29 August 1991 on Soviet territory soon after a failed coup détat and was abolished on 6 November 1991 on Russian territory. The highest body within the CPSU was the party Congress, which convened every five years, when the Congress was not in session, the Central Committee was the highest body. Because the Central Committee met twice a year, most day-to-day duties and responsibilities were vested in the Politburo, the Secretariat, and the Orgburo. The party leader was the head of government and held the office of either General Secretary, Premier or head of state, or some of the three offices concurrently—but never all three at the same time. The CPSU, according to its party statute, adhered to Marxism–Leninism, a based on the writings of Vladimir Lenin and Karl Marx. The party pursued state socialism, under which all industries were nationalized, a number of causes contributed to CPSUs loss of control and the dissolution of the Soviet Union. Some historians have written that Gorbachevs policy of glasnost was the root cause, Gorbachev maintained that perestroika without glasnost was doomed to failure anyway. Others have blamed the stagnation and subsequent loss of faith by the general populace in communist ideology. The Russian Socialist Federative Soviet Republic, the worlds first constitutionally socialist state, was established by the Bolsheviks in the aftermath of the October Revolution. Immediately after the Revolution, the new, Lenin-led government implemented socialist reforms, including the transfer of estates, in this context, in 1918, RSDLP became Russian Communist Party and remained so until 1997. Lenin supported world revolution he sought peace with the Central Powers. The treaty was voided after the Allied victory in World War I, in 1921, Lenin proposed the New Economic Policy, a system of state capitalism that started the process of industrialization and recovery from the Civil War. On 30 December 1922, the Russian SFSR joined former territories of the Russian Empire in the Soviet Union, on 9 March 1923, Lenin suffered a stroke, which incapacitated him and effectively ended his role in government. He died on 21 January 1924 and was succeeded by Joseph Stalin, after emerging victorious from a power struggle with Trotsky, Stalin obtained full control of the party and Stalinism was installed as the only ideology of the party. The partys official name was All-Union Communist Party in 1925, Stalins political purge greatly affected the partys configuration, as many party members were executed or sentenced for slave labour. Happening during the timespan of the Great Purge, fascism had ascened to power in Italy, seeing this as a potential threat, the Party actively sought to form collective security alliances with Anti-fascist western powers such as France and Britain
15.
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
16.
Hero of Socialist Labour
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Hero of Socialist Labour was an honorary title of the Soviet Union and other Warsaw Pact countries. It was the highest degree of distinction for exceptional achievements in national economy and it provided a similar status to the title Hero of the Soviet Union that was awarded for heroic deeds, but unlike the latter, was not awarded to foreign citizens. The Honorary Title Hero of Socialist Labour was introduced by decree of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the Soviet Union on December 27,1938. Originally, Heroes of Socialist Labour were awarded the highest decoration of the Soviet Union, the Order of Lenin, the first recipient of the award was Joseph Stalin, awarded by the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet in December 20,1939. The second recipient of the award was the designer of machine guns Vasily Degtyaryov, the third time the award was issued to nine weapons designers, including Fedor Tokarev, Boris Shpitalny, Nikolai Polikarpov, Alexander Yakovlev and Vladimir Klimov. Post 1945 recipients include Mikhail Kalashnikov, Emilian Bukov, Alexander Tselikov, Dmitri Shostakovich, Nikolai Afanasiev, German Korobov, Peter Andreevich Tkachev, by September 1,1971,16,245 people had been awarded the title of Hero of Socialist Labour. One hundred and five people have been awarded two or more Hammer and Sickle medals, by 1991, at the dissolution of the Soviet Union, over 20,000 people had been awarded the title. In April 2013, Vladimir Putin resurrected the award in Russia under the title Hero of Labour, thrice Heroes of Socialist Labour were to have their busts placed near the planned Palace of Soviets, but this was never implemented as the Palace of Soviets was never built. Only the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the Soviet Union could deprive a person of this title, if worn with honorary titles of the Russian Federation, the latter have precedence. The Honorary title Hero of Socialist Labour was designed by the artist A. Pomansky, the gold star medal of the Honorary Title Hero of Socialist Labour was a five-pointed star with smooth dihedral rays on the obverse, the diameter of the circumscribed star was 33.5 mm. In the center of the obverse, a hammer and sickle respectively of 14 and 13 mm. The reverse was plain and was surrounded by a raised rim. In the center, the relief inscription Hero of Socialist Labor in 2mm high letters, the insignia was secured to a standard 25 X 15mm Soviet square mount by a ring through the suspension loop. The mount was covered by a red silk moiré ribbon, on the reverse of the mount was a threaded stub and nut to secure the award to clothing. List of people awarded the Hero of Socialist Labour Oruzhie Magazine, Page 9, Солдат удачи номер92000 Д. Ширяев Кто изобрел автомат Калашникова History of the award Legal Library of the USSR
17.
Bohemian Grove
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Bohemian Grove is a 2, 700-acre campground located at 20601 Bohemian Avenue, in Monte Rio, California, belonging to a private San Francisco-based mens art club known as the Bohemian Club. In mid-July each year, Bohemian Grove hosts a two-week, three-weekend encampment of some of the most prominent men in the world, members may invite guests to the Grove. Guests may be invited to the Grove for either the Spring Jinks in June or the main July encampment. m, after 40 years of membership, the men earn Old Guard status, giving them reserved seating at the Groves daily talks, as well as other perquisites. Former U. S. president Herbert Hoover was inducted into the Old Guard on March 19,1953, Redwood branches from the Grove were flown to the Waldorf Astoria Hotel in New York City, where they were used to decorate a banquet room for the celebration. In his acceptance speech, Hoover compared the honor of the Old Guard status to his frequent role as veteran counselor to later presidents, the Club motto is Weaving Spiders Come Not Here, which implies that outside concerns and business deals are to be left outside. When gathered in groups, Bohemians usually adhere to the injunction, important political and business deals have been developed at the Grove. The Grove is particularly famous for a Manhattan Project planning meeting took place there in September 1942. Those attending this meeting included Ernest Lawrence, U. C, Berkeley colleague J. Robert Oppenheimer, and various military officials. The S-1 Executive Committee heads, such as the presidents of Harvard, Yale, at the time, Oppenheimer was not an S-1 member, although Lawrence and Oppenheimer hosted the meeting. Grove members take pride in this event and often relate the story to new attendees. However, other behavior at this famous campground has led to numerous exaggerations, one such documented example was former president, Richard Nixons comments from a May 13,1971 recording that, The Bohemian Grove, which I attend from time to time. It is the most faggy goddamned thing you could ever imagine, the tradition of a summer encampment was established six years after the Bohemian Club was formed in 1872. Henry Harry Edwards, an actor and founding member, announced that he was relocating to New York City to further his career. On June 29,1878, somewhat fewer than 100 Bohemians gathered in the Redwoods in Marin County near Taylorville for an evening party in Edwards honor. Freely flowing liquor and some Japanese lanterns put a glow on the festivities and this festive gathering was repeated the next year without Edwards, and became the clubs yearly encampment. From 1893 Bohemians rented the current location, and in 1899 purchased it from Melvin Cyrus Meeker who had developed a logging operation in the area. Gradually over the decades, members of the Club purchased land surrounding the original location to the perimeter of the basin in which it resides. Writer and journalist William Henry Irwin said of the Grove, You come upon it suddenly, one step and its glory is over you
18.
California
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California is the most populous state in the United States and the third most extensive by area. Located on the western coast of the U. S, California is bordered by the other U. S. states of Oregon, Nevada, and Arizona and shares an international border with the Mexican state of Baja California. Los Angeles is Californias most populous city, and the second largest after New York City. The Los Angeles Area and the San Francisco Bay Area are the nations second- and fifth-most populous urban regions, California also has the nations most populous county, Los Angeles County, and its largest county by area, San Bernardino County. The Central Valley, an agricultural area, dominates the states center. What is now California was first settled by various Native American tribes before being explored by a number of European expeditions during the 16th and 17th centuries, the Spanish Empire then claimed it as part of Alta California in their New Spain colony. The area became a part of Mexico in 1821 following its war for independence. The western portion of Alta California then was organized as the State of California, the California Gold Rush starting in 1848 led to dramatic social and demographic changes, with large-scale emigration from the east and abroad with an accompanying economic boom. If it were a country, California would be the 6th largest economy in the world, fifty-eight percent of the states economy is centered on finance, government, real estate services, technology, and professional, scientific and technical business services. Although it accounts for only 1.5 percent of the states economy, the story of Calafia is recorded in a 1510 work The Adventures of Esplandián, written as a sequel to Amadis de Gaula by Spanish adventure writer Garci Rodríguez de Montalvo. The kingdom of Queen Calafia, according to Montalvo, was said to be a land inhabited by griffins and other strange beasts. This conventional wisdom that California was an island, with maps drawn to reflect this belief, shortened forms of the states name include CA, Cal. Calif. and US-CA. Settled by successive waves of arrivals during the last 10,000 years, various estimates of the native population range from 100,000 to 300,000. The Indigenous peoples of California included more than 70 distinct groups of Native Americans, ranging from large, settled populations living on the coast to groups in the interior. California groups also were diverse in their organization with bands, tribes, villages. Trade, intermarriage and military alliances fostered many social and economic relationships among the diverse groups, the first European effort to explore the coast as far north as the Russian River was a Spanish sailing expedition, led by Portuguese captain Juan Rodríguez Cabrillo, in 1542. Some 37 years later English explorer Francis Drake also explored and claimed a portion of the California coast in 1579. Spanish traders made unintended visits with the Manila galleons on their trips from the Philippines beginning in 1565
19.
Kremlin Wall Necropolis
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Burials in the Kremlin Wall Necropolis in Moscow began in November 1917, when 240 pro-Bolshevik victims of the October Revolution were buried in mass graves at Red Square. It is centered on both sides of Lenins Mausoleum, initially built in wood in 1924 and rebuilt in granite in 1929–1930, in 1925–1927 burials in the ground were stopped, funerals were now conducted as burials of cremated ash in the Kremlin wall itself. Burials in the ground only resumed with Mikhail Kalinins funeral in 1946, the practice of burying dignitaries at Red Square ended with the funeral of Konstantin Chernenko in March 1985. The Kremlin Wall Necropolis was designated a landmark in 1974. The moat was lined with a fortress wall, and spanned by three bridges connecting the Kremlin to the posad. From 1776–1787 Matvey Kazakov built the Kremlin Senate that today provides a backdrop for the present-day Necropolis, throughout the 18th century the unused, neglected fortifications deteriorated and were not properly repaired until the 1801 coronation of Alexander I. In one season the moat with bridges and adjacent buildings was replaced with a span of paved square. More reconstruction followed in the 19th century, the stretch of Kremlin wall south from Senate Tower was badly damaged in 1812 by the explosion at the Kremlin Arsenal set off by the retreating French troops. Eventually, the structures of the towers were deemed sound enough to be left in place. Peters bastions were razed, The Kremlin wall facing Red Square was rebuilt shallower than before, in July 1917, hundreds of soldiers of the Russian Northern Front were arrested for mutiny and desertion and locked up in Daugavpils fortress. Later,869 Dvinsk inmates were transported to Moscow, here, the jailed soldiers launched a hunger strike, public support to them threatened to develop in citywide riot. On September 22,593 inmates were released, the rest were left behind bars until the October Revolution, the released soldiers, collectively called Dvintsy, stayed in the city as a cohesive unit, based in Zamoskvorechye District and openly hostile to the ruling Provisional Government. Immediately after the October Revolution in Saint Petersburg, Dvintsy became the force of the Bolsheviks in Moscow. Late at night of October 27–28 a detachment of two hundred men marching north to Tverskaya Street confronted the loyalist forces near the State Historical Museum on the Red Square. In the fighting 70 of the Dvintsy, including their company commander Sapunov, were killed at the barricades, on the following day the loyalists, led by Colonel Konstantin Ryabtsev, succeeded in taking over the Kremlin. They gunned down the surrendered Red soldiers at the Kremlin Arsenal wall, more were killed as the Bolsheviks stormed the Kremlin, finally taking control on the night of November 2–3. Voices reached us across the place, and the sound of picks. Mountains of dirt and rock were piled high near the base of the wall, climbing these we looked down into two massive pits, ten or fifteen feet deep and fifty yards long, where hundreds of soldiers and workers were digging in the light of huge fires
20.
Order of Lenin
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The Order of Lenin, named after the leader of the Russian October Revolution, was the highest decoration bestowed by the Soviet Union. Those who were awarded the titles Hero of the Soviet Union and it was also bestowed on cities, companies, factories, regions, military units and ships. Corporate entities, various institutions and military units who received the said Order applied the full name of the order into their official titles. The order was established by the Central Executive Committee on April 6,1930, the first design of the Order of Lenin was sculpted by Pyotr Tayozhny and Ivan Shadr based on sketches by Ivan Dubasov. It was made by Goznak of silver with some lightly gold-plated features and it was a round badge with a central disc featuring Vladimir Lenins profile surrounded by smokestacks, a tractor and a building, possibly a power plant. A thin red-enamelled border and a circle of wheat panicles surrounded the disc, at the top was a gold-plated hammer and sickle emblem, and at the bottom were the Russian initials for USSR in red enamel. Only about 800 of this design were minted, the second design was awarded from 1934 until 1936. This was a gold badge, featuring an silver plated disc bearing Lenins portrait. The disc is surrounded by two golden panicles of wheat, and a red flag with LENIN in Cyrillic script, a red star is placed on the left and the hammer and sickle emblem at the bottom, both in red enamel. The third design was awarded from 1936 till 1943, design was same as previous, but central disc was gray enamelled and Lenins portrait was separate piece made of platinum fixed by rivets. The fourth design was awarded from 1943 till 1991, design was same as previous, but was worn as a medal suspended from a ribbon. The badge was worn by screwback on the left chest without ribbon. Later it was worn as a suspended from a red ribbon with pairs of yellow stripes at the edges. The ribbon bar is of the same design, the portrait of Lenin was originally a riveted silver piece. For a time it was incorporated into a gold badge. The first Order of Lenin was awarded to the newspaper Komsomolskaya Pravda on 23 May 1930, also among the first ten recipients were five industrial companies, three pilots, and the Secretary to the Central Executive Committee Avel Enukidze. The first person to be awarded a second Order of Lenin was the pilot Valery Chkalov in 1936, another pilot, Vladimir Kokkinaki, became the first to receive a third Order in 1939. The first five recipients, a German and four Americans, received the award for helping in the reconstruction of Soviet industry
21.
Order of the Patriotic War
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The Order was established on 20 May 1942 and came in first class and second class depending upon the merit of the deed. It was the first Soviet order established during the war, and its statute precisely defined, which deeds are awarded with the order, e. g. It was also given to some allied troops and commanders, including western allies, altogether, over 324,903 of the 1st class and 951,652 of the 2nd class were issued during the war. Until 1985, the number reached about 1,370,000. As of January 1992, the number of all awarded Orders was 2,487,098 first class and 6,688,497 second class variants. It featured a red enamel five-pointed star, made of silver, with rays in the background. The rays in the background were golden for 1st Class and silver for 2nd Class, the central disc had a golden hammer and sickle on a red enamel background, surrounded by a white enamel ring with the words ОТЕЧЕСТВЕННАЯ ВОЙНА. Anniversary orders of 1985 were made cheaper, as a silver piece. Recipients of the Order of the Patriotic War Description of the order
22.
Order of the Red Banner of Labour
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It is the labour counterpart of the military Order of the Red Banner. A few institutions and factories, being the pride of Soviet Union, the Order of the Red Banner of Labour began solely as an award of the Russian SFSR on December 28,1920. The all-Union equivalent was established by Decree of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet on September 7,1928, the Order of the Red Banner of Labour could be awarded multiple times to the same recipient for successive deeds and long time merit. The Order of the Red Banner of Labour was worn on the side of the chest. If worn in the presence of Orders or medals of the Russian Federation, the design of the Order of the Red Banner of Labour evolved over the years. Its original design, called type 1 was amended in 1936, the type 1 Order consisted of a 38 mm wide by 43 mm high silver badge in the shape of a cogwheel, at center, a disc bordered along its entire outer diameter by panicles of wheat. Protruding from under the half of the central disc, a red enamelled triangle pointing downwards. On the central disc in the background, an electric dam, at center, a gilded hammer and sickle, at the top. At the very bottom of the cogwheel, the relief inscription USSR on a stylised horizontal shield bisected by a smaller cogwheel meshing into the larger one, the Order was secured to clothing with a threaded screw and nut arrangement. The earlier nuts were 28 mm in diameter, later ones measured 32 mm, the type 2 Order also consisted of a silver badge in the shape of a cogwheel, it measured 38 mm wide by 44 mm high. On the lower circumference of the cogwheel, the relief inscription Proletarians of the World, below the cogwheel, a red enamelled relief five pointed star superimposed on a shield from which four short panicles of wheat protrude left and right. Along the outer circumference of the central wreath, white enamelled slots spaced equally on the cogwheel. The individuals listed below were recipients of the Order of the Red Banner of Labour, the first recipient of the Order of the Red Banner of Labour of the RSFSR was Nikita Menchukov for saving an important bridge from being destroyed by flowing ice. Order of the Red Banner of Labour of the USSR number 1 was presented to the Putilov Works in Leningrad, the first individual awardees were V. Fedetov, A. Shelagin and M. Kyatkovsky for the rescue of a polar expedition. Mikhail Gorbachev received the Order of the Red Banner of Labour for harvesting a crop on his familys collective farm in 1949 at age 17. He is one of the Orders youngest recipients
23.
Order of the Red Star
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The Order of the Red Star was a military decoration of the Soviet Union. The Order of the Red Star is worn on the side of the chest. If worn in the presence of Orders or medals of the Russian Federation, the Order of the Red Star was also used as a long service award from 1944 to 1958 to mark fifteen years of service in the military, state security, or police. The Order of the Red Star is a red enamelled 47mm to 50mm wide silver five pointed star, the band below the soldier bore the relief inscription USSR. Below the shield, the hammer and sickle also of oxydised silver, the otherwise plain reverse bore the makers mark and the award serial number. The Order was attached to clothing by a threaded stud and screw attachment, when the order wasnt worn, a ribbon could be worn in its stead on the ribbon bar on the left side of the chest. The ribbon of the Order of the red Star was a 24mm wide silk moiré dark red with a 5mm wide central silver stripe. The Order of the Red Star was awarded 6 times to 5 people,5 times to more than 15 people, four times to more than 150 people, legal Library of the USSR Soviet-Awards. com A non-commercial website Russian language, non-commercial website
24.
International Standard Book Number
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The International Standard Book Number is a unique numeric commercial book identifier. An ISBN is assigned to each edition and variation of a book, for example, an e-book, a paperback and a hardcover edition of the same book would each have a different ISBN. The ISBN is 13 digits long if assigned on or after 1 January 2007, the method of assigning an ISBN is nation-based and varies from country to country, often depending on how large the publishing industry is within a country. The initial ISBN configuration of recognition was generated in 1967 based upon the 9-digit Standard Book Numbering created in 1966, the 10-digit ISBN format was developed by the International Organization for Standardization and was published in 1970 as international standard ISO2108. Occasionally, a book may appear without a printed ISBN if it is printed privately or the author does not follow the usual ISBN procedure, however, this can be rectified later. Another identifier, the International Standard Serial Number, identifies periodical publications such as magazines, the ISBN configuration of recognition was generated in 1967 in the United Kingdom by David Whitaker and in 1968 in the US by Emery Koltay. The 10-digit ISBN format was developed by the International Organization for Standardization and was published in 1970 as international standard ISO2108, the United Kingdom continued to use the 9-digit SBN code until 1974. The ISO on-line facility only refers back to 1978, an SBN may be converted to an ISBN by prefixing the digit 0. For example, the edition of Mr. J. G. Reeder Returns, published by Hodder in 1965, has SBN340013818 -340 indicating the publisher,01381 their serial number. This can be converted to ISBN 0-340-01381-8, the check digit does not need to be re-calculated, since 1 January 2007, ISBNs have contained 13 digits, a format that is compatible with Bookland European Article Number EAN-13s. An ISBN is assigned to each edition and variation of a book, for example, an ebook, a paperback, and a hardcover edition of the same book would each have a different ISBN. The ISBN is 13 digits long if assigned on or after 1 January 2007, a 13-digit ISBN can be separated into its parts, and when this is done it is customary to separate the parts with hyphens or spaces. Separating the parts of a 10-digit ISBN is also done with either hyphens or spaces, figuring out how to correctly separate a given ISBN number is complicated, because most of the parts do not use a fixed number of digits. ISBN issuance is country-specific, in that ISBNs are issued by the ISBN registration agency that is responsible for country or territory regardless of the publication language. Some ISBN registration agencies are based in national libraries or within ministries of culture, in other cases, the ISBN registration service is provided by organisations such as bibliographic data providers that are not government funded. In Canada, ISBNs are issued at no cost with the purpose of encouraging Canadian culture. In the United Kingdom, United States, and some countries, where the service is provided by non-government-funded organisations. Australia, ISBNs are issued by the library services agency Thorpe-Bowker
25.
Alexander Danilovich Menshikov
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A highly appreciated associate and friend of Tsar Peter the Great, he was the de facto ruler of Russia for two years. Menshikov was born on 16 November 1673 in Moscow and it has been disputed by his enemies whether his father was a stablehand or worked on a barge, it is more likely that he was of petty noble stock. As the story goes, he was making a living on the streets of Moscow as a vendor of stuffed buns known as pirozhki at the age of twenty. His fine appearance and witty character caught the attention of Franz Lefort, Peters first favorite, on the death of Lefort in 1699, Menshikov succeeded him as Peters prime favorite and confidant. He took a part in the Azov campaigns against the Ottoman Empire. During the tsars first foreign tour in the year, Menshikov worked by his side in the dockyard of Amsterdam. Around 1706 he had a conflict with Andrew Vinius, Vinius lost all of his land, Menshikov understood perfectly the principles on which Peters reforms were conducted and was the right hand of the tsar in all his gigantic undertakings. But he abused his position, and his corrupt practices frequently brought him to the verge of ruin. Every time the tsar returned to Russia he received fresh accusations of plunder against his Serene Highness, Peters first serious outburst of indignation was due to the princes looting in Poland. On his return to Russia in 1712, Peter discovered that Menshikov had turned an eye to wholesale corruption in his own governor-generalship. Peter warned him for the last time to change his ways, yet, in 1713, he was implicated in the Solovey process, in the course of which it was demonstrated that he had defrauded the government of 100,000 roubles. He only owed his life on occasion to a sudden illness. On his recovery Peters fondness for his friend overcame his sense of justice, in 1714 he was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society. In the last year of Peters reign new allegations of fraud by Menshikov came to light and it was chiefly through the efforts of Menshikov and his colleague Tolstoi that, on the death of Peter, in 1725, Catherine was raised to the throne. Menshikov was committed to the Petrine system, and he recognised that, if that system were to continue, Catherine was, at particular time. Her name was a watchword for the progressive faction, the placing of her on the throne meant a final victory over ancient prejudices, a vindication of the new ideas of progress, and not least security for Menshikov and his ill-gotten fortune. During Catherines short reign, Menshikov was practically the absolute ruler of Russia and he promoted himself to the unprecedented rank of Generalissimus, and was the only Russian to bear a ducal title. Upon finishing the construction of the Menshikov Palace on the Neva Embankment in St Petersburg, pushkin in one of his poems alluded to Menshikov as half-tsar
26.
Fyodor Apraksin
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The Apraksin brothers were launched to prominence after the marriage of their sister Marfa to Tsar Feodor III of Russia in 1681. Fyodor entered the service of his brother-in-law at the age of 10 as a stolnik, after Feodors death he served the little tsar Peter in the same capacity. He took part in military amusements of the tsar and helped to build a toy flotilla for him. The playfellowship of the two resulted in a lifelong friendship. In 1692 Apraksin was appointed governor of Arkhangelsk, the foremost trade port of Russia at that time, while living there, he commissioned one of the first Russian trade vessels to be built and sail abroad. In 1697 he was entrusted with major shipbuilding activities in Voronezh and he won his colonelcy at the siege of Azov. He was nominated the first Russian governor of Azov in 1700, while Peter was combating Charles XII, Apraksin was constructing fleets, building fortresses and havens in South Russia, notably Tavrov and Taganrog. In 1700 he was appointed chief of the admiralty, in which post his unusual technical ability was of great service. Having pacified the rebellious Astrakhan, Apraksin was summoned to Moscow, where he was put in charge of the mint, in 1707, he was appointed president of the Russian Admiralty. The following year, he was appointed commander-in-chief in Ingria, to defend the new capital Saint Petersburg against the Swedes, on February 25,1710, aged 48, he became the third Russian ever to be elevated to the comital dignity. Apraksin held the command in the Black Sea during the campaign of the Pruth. In March 1710 he was in command at the Siege of Vyborg, taking this Swedish fortress in June, he was invested with the Order of St. Andrew and appointed governor of the conquered provinces. He commanded the Imperial Russian Navy in the taking of Helsinki - materially assisting the conquest of Finland by his operations from the side of the sea - and that same year he assisted the tsar in launching a new harbour in Revel. Earlier, in 1712, he held parley with Turkey, which ended in the destruction of Taganrog, for these great services he was made a senator and General Admiral of the Empire. In 1715, Apraksin fell into disgrace with the tsar. After brief investigation, he was fined and dispatched to govern Estonia, in 1719, he led the Russian naval expedition into the Gulf of Bothnia. During the Russo-Persian War Apraksin barely escaped an attempt by a Chechen. Upon Peters I death in 1725, his wife Catherine invested the ailing admiral with the Order of St, once Empress Anna Ivanovna was crowned she began to rule absolutely, and she had Dmitry Galitzine sentenced to death but later commuted his sentence to exile
27.
Gavriil Golovkin
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Count Gavrila Ivanovich Golovkin was a Russian statesman who formally presided over foreign affairs of the Russian Empire from 1706 until his death. The real control over Russian diplomacy during his term in office was exercised by Boris Kurakin until 1727. He accompanied the young tsar abroad on his first foreign tour, in 1706, he succeeded Golovin in the direction of foreign policy, and was created the first Russian grand-chancellor on the field of Poltava. Golovkin held this office for twenty-five years, in the reign of Catherine I, he became a member of the Supreme Privy Council, which had the chief conduct of affairs during this and the succeeding reigns. The empress also entrusted him with her last will whereby she appointed the young Peter II her successor, under Anna, he was a member of the first cabinet formed in Russia, but had less influence in affairs than Osterman and Munnich. In 1707, Golovkin was created a count of the Holy Roman Empire and he was one of the wealthiest, and at the same time one of the stingiest, magnates of his day. His ignorance of any language but his own made his intercourse with foreign ministers very inconvenient, for the ultimate disgrace of his relatives, see the Lopukhina Affair. Yury Golovkin, Russias first ambassador to China, was his great grandson, list of Descendants at European Dynastics. com This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain, Chisholm, Hugh, ed. Golovkin, Gavriil Ivanovich
28.
Andrey Osterman
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Count Andrey Ivanovich Osterman was a German-born Russian statesman who came to prominence under Tsar Peter I of Russia and served until the accession of the Tsesarevna Elizabeth. His foreign policy was based upon the Austrian alliance, born in Bochum in Westphalia, of middle-class parents, his original name was Heinrich Johann Friedrich Ostermann. Osterman became secretary to Vice-Admiral Cornelis Kruse, who had a commission from Peter the Great to pick up promising young men. Osterman, together with General Bruce, represented Russia at the peace congress of 1718. In 1721 Osterman concluded the Peace of Nystad with Sweden, and was created a baron for his services, in 1723 he was made vice-president of the ministry of foreign affairs for bringing about a very advantageous commercial treaty with Persia. During the reign of Catherine I of Russia Ostermans authority still further increased, the conduct of foreign affairs was left entirely in his hands, and he held also the posts of minister of commerce and postmaster-general. He held aloof till the empress Anne was firmly established on the throne as autocrat and his unique knowledge of foreign affairs made him indispensable to the empress and her counsellors, and even as to home affairs his advice was almost invariably followed. It was at his suggestion that the system was introduced into Russia. All the useful reforms introduced between 1730 and 1740 are to be attributed to his initiative and he improved the state of trade, lowered taxation, encouraged industry and promoted education, ameliorated the judicature and materially raised the credit of Russia. As foreign minister he was cautious and circumspect, but when war was necessary he prosecuted it vigorously, the successful conclusions of the War of the Polish Succession and of the war with Turkey were entirely due to his diplomacy. He had, therefore, guaranteed the Pragmatic Sanction with the intention of defending it. Hence the determination of France to remove him at any cost, Osterman was therefore the first and the most illustrious victim of the coup détat of 6 December 1741. Ostermans children returned to the court during the reign of Catherine the Great and his elder son, count Feodor Andreevich, was the senator and governor of Moscow. Another son, Ivan Andreevich, was the Russian ambassador in Stockholm and then, for 16 years, after his death the Osterman titles and estates passed to his nephew, Alexander Ivanovich Tolstoy, chancellor of the Russian military orders. This article incorporates text from a now in the public domain, Bain
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Pyotr Andreyevich Tolstoy
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Count Pyotr Andreyevich Tolstoy was a Russian statesman and diplomat, prominent during and after the reign of Peter the Great. He was the ancestor of all the Counts Tolstoy, including the novelist Leo Tolstoy and his wife was Solomonic Timofeevna Dubrovskaya born 1660 and died 1722, he had two sons with her, Ivan and Peter. Both his sons died in exile with him the year before his own death and he was, however, survived by many grandchildren, the family was recalled by the Empress Elizabeth, daughter of Peter the Great in 1760, and had all honors and land restored. Some historians assume Pyotr Tolstoy to have been an okolnichy, while others consider he came from a boyar background and he served in 1682 as Chamberlain at the court of childless Tsar Feodor III Alekseevich, Tsar 1676–1682. Peter was the son of Tsar Alexei I of Russias second marriage. For a long time Peter kept his latest supporter at arms length, however, in 1697, Tolstoy volunteered to go to Venice to learn Italian and ship-building, and Peter could not resist the subtle flattery implied in such a proposal from a middle-aged Muscovite noble. Even before Poltava, Tolstoy had the greatest difficulty in preventing the Turks from aiding the Swedes, when Charles XII took refuge on Turkish soil, Tolstoy instantly demanded his extradition. This diplomatic blunder only irritated the already alarmed Turks, and on October 10,1710, Tolstoy was thrown into the Seven Towers, a proceeding tantamount to a declaration of war against Russia. On his release, in 1714, he returned to Russia, was created a senator, the unfortunate tsarevich Alexei Petrovich, a widower since 1715, at the age of 25, had been the husband of Saxony princess Charlotte Christine of Brunswick-Wolfenbüttel. Nevertheless, Tsar Peter II of Russia, Peter Alexeyvich, the Russian-Saxon grandson of Peter I, was also a Tsar for about three years, albeit he managed to live till the age of 15. Tolstoy was well aware that the elevation of the grand duke Peter II, son of the tsarevich Alexei, Peter II, grandson of Peter I of Russia, was Tsar of Russia aged 12, for three years, and died aged 15. But Menshikov was too strong and too quick for his ancient colleague, on the very day of Empress Catherine I death, Tolstoy, now in his 82nd year, was banished to the Solovetsky Monastery in the White Sea, where he died two years later. Pyotr Tolstoy is the author of a sketch of the impressions made upon him by Western Europe during his tour in the years 1697–1698, not all the later family lineages of nobility bearing the last name of Tolstoy list Pyotr Andreyevich as their ancestor. However, it is among his descendants in the male line where we find all the known Tolstoy writers, among them Leo Tolstoy, Aleksey Konstantinovich Tolstoy. There were a number of statesmen and soldiers descending from Pyotr Andreyevich, as Education and his other notable descendants were such literati as the pioneering Russian philosopher Pyotr Chaadayev and Vladimir Odoyevsky. This article incorporates text from a now in the public domain, Chisholm, Hugh, ed. Tolstoy. The Travel Diary of Peter Tolstoi, A Muscovite in Early Modern Europe, Hardcover, Northern Illinois University Press, ISBN 0-87580-130-7. The Rise and Fall of Latin Humanism in Early-Modern Russia, Pagan Authors, Ukrainians, politics and Culture in Eighteenth-Century Russia, Collected Essays
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Charles Frederick, Duke of Holstein-Gottorp
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Duke Charles Frederick of Holstein-Gottorp was the son of Frederick IV of Holstein-Gottorp and his consort, Hedvig Sophia, daughter of King Charles XI of Sweden. He became reigning duke in infancy, upon his fathers death in 1702, and all his life was a claimant to the throne of Sweden, as pro forma heir to Charles XII. He is the father of Peter III of Russia, and as such he was an ancestor of all Russian emperors after Catherine II. Charles Frederick was born in Sweden, where his parents had been offered safety during the outbreak of the Great Northern war by his maternal uncle and he succeeded to the duchy at the age of two after the death of his father. Duke Charles Frederick was under the regency of his mother, with whom he resided in Stockholm, actual daily rule of the duchy was left to administrators. Danish troops had ravaged the lands during the Great Northern War and conquered its northern portions. His mother is said to have raised him tenderly but firmly and his mother, and later Hedwig Eleonora, both supported and worked for his right to be considered heir of Sweden after his childless uncle. Charles Frederick met his uncle Charles XII for the first time in 1716 and he was declared of legal majority in 1717, and was then given some military responsibility. Upon the death in 1718 of his uncle and second cousin, Charles XII of Sweden. The dukes party asserted that the monarchy in Sweden, which his grandfather King Charles XI had created. Upon the news of the death of his uncle, he was reportedly too grief-stricken to take any action, Ulrika Eleonoras husband Frederick, however, who was also present with him in Tistedalen, rushed to assist her in claiming the throne. When Charles Frederick was confronted with Ulrika Eleonora, he was forced by Arvid Horn to greet her as queen. He asked to be granted the title Royal Highness and to be recognized as her heir, Charles Frederick withdrew from Sweden, eventually settling in Russia. Afterward, the so-called Holsteiner Party in Sweden continued to advance Charles Fredericks claims, the party made preparations and awaited the childless Ulrika Eleonoras death, but Charles Frederick died before his aunt and left his claims to his infant son. By that time Sweden had enacted new laws of succession, however and his first cousin Adolph Frederick, of his same Oldenburg dynasty, was elected Crown Prince of Sweden. In 1723, he was granted the title Royal Highness in his absence, Charles Frederick left for Hamburg, as Holstein-Gottorp had been occupied by Denmark since 1713. He succeeded to have the occupation removed by application to the German-Roman Emperor, in 1720, Sweden and Denmark-Norway concluded the Treaty of Frederiksborg, in which Sweden pledged to cease its support of Holstein-Gottorp. Duke Charles Frederick was married to Anna Petrovna, Tsesarevna of Russia and elder daughter of Tsar Peter I and his peasant wife, as Charles was the Swedish heir, Peter saw the marriage as politically useful
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Vasily Lukich Dolgorukov
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Prince Vasiliy Lukich Dolgorukov was a Russian diplomat and minister who was the most powerful man in the country in the later years of Peter IIs reign. A male-line descendant of the legendary prince Rurik, Dolgorukov was one of the first batch of young Russians whom Peter the Great sent abroad to be educated, on his return home he entered the diplomatic service. From 1706 to 1707 he represented Russia in Poland, and from 1707 to 1720 he was appointed minister in Copenhagen, there, he succeeded in persuading King Frederick IV to join the second coalition against Charles XII in the Treaty of Copenhagen. In 1724 he represented Russia in Warsaw and in 1726 in Stockholm, during the reign of Peter II, Dolgorukov was appointed a member of the Supreme Privy Council. Anne, who repudiated the articles on the first opportunity, never forgave Dolgorukov for this and he was deprived of all his offices and dignities on April 17,1730, and banished first to his country seat and then to the Solovetsky Monastery. Nine years later the charge of forging the will of Peter II was revived against him and this article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain, Chisholm, Hugh, ed. article name needed
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Vasily Vladimirovich Dolgorukov
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Prince Vasili Vladimirovich Dolgorukov was a Russian commander and politician, promoted to Field Marshal in 1728. His life and fortune swung like a vane, due to complex plots. Son of a boyar, Vasili Dolgorukov was, starting from 1685 and he was then enlisted in the Preobrazhensky regiment in 1700, starting his true military career. Serving in the Preobrazhensky regiment, he took part in Russian Northern Wars, in 1706, he was transferred to Ukraine, where he was under the command of Ivan Mazepa, where he distinguished himself in 1707–1708 during the squelching of the Bulavin Rebellion. During the Battle of Poltava he was the commander of the cavalry force. In 1715, he was sent to Poland as a represent of Peter, where he concluded, in 1716 and he also accompanied Peter the Great during his foreign travels in 1717 and 1718. Despite being a favorite of Peter the Great, Dolgorukov disapproved a number of Peters reforms, in 1718, following Alexeis trial and death, Dolgorukov reproached Peter such a violent behavior towards his own son. Dolgorukov was tried, demoted and exiled to Solikamsk, following Catherine Is coronation on 7 May 1724. Dolgorukov was brought back from his exile and given the rank of colonel, in 1726, he was appointed commander-in-chief of Caucasus forces. In 1728, as a consecration of his military career, he was promoted field marshal. After Anna Ioanovnas coronation in 1730, Dolgoroukov was appointed to Senate, however, reportedly made insulting remarks regarding persecutions staged by Anna against his family. In 1731, after a plot, he was accused of insulting remarks regarding the Empress. His sentence was changed to life imprisonment first in Schlisselburg fortress, then in Ivangorod in 1737, in December 1741, following Elizabeths coronation, Dorgorukov was brought back from his exile and fully rehabilitated. Elizabeth named him president of the War College, a rank that he assumed until his death, while serving in the War College, Dolgoroukov made significant improvements regarding the organization and logistics of Russian military. Soviet military encyclopedia Bantysh-Kamensky, Biographies of Russian generalissimes and field marshals, Мoscow,1991
