Freemasonry
The degrees of freemasonry retain the three grades of medieval craft guilds, those of Apprentice, Journeyman or fellow, and Master Mason. These are the degrees offered by Craft Freemasonry, members of these organisations are known as Freemasons or Masons. There are additional degrees, which vary with locality and jurisdiction, the basic, local organisational unit of Freemasonry is the Lodge. The Lodges are usually supervised and governed at the level by a Grand Lodge or Grand Orient. There is no international, worldwide Grand Lodge that supervises all of Freemasonry, each Grand Lodge is independent, modern Freemasonry broadly consists of two main recognition groups. Continental Freemasonry is now the term for the liberal jurisdictions who have removed some, or all. The Masonic Lodge is the organisational unit of Freemasonry. The Lodge meets regularly to conduct the formal business of any small organisation. In addition to business, the meeting may perform a ceremony to confer a Masonic degree or receive a lecture, at the conclusion of the meeting, the Lodge might adjourn for a formal dinner, or festive board, sometimes involving toasting and song.
The bulk of Masonic ritual consists of degree ceremonies, candidates for Freemasonry are progressively initiated into Freemasonry, first in the degree of Entered Apprentice. Some time later, in a ceremony, they will be passed to the degree of Fellowcraft. In all of ceremonies, the candidate is entrusted with passwords, signs. Another ceremony is the installation of the Master and officers of the Lodge. In some jurisdictions Installed Master is valued as a separate rank, in other jurisdictions, the grade is not recognised, and no inner ceremony conveys new secrets during the installation of a new Master of the Lodge. Most Lodges have some sort of calendar, allowing Masons. Often coupled with events is the obligation placed on every Mason to contribute to charity. This occurs at both Lodge and Grand Lodge level, Masonic charities contribute to many fields from education to disaster relief. These private local Lodges form the backbone of Freemasonry, and a Freemason will necessarily have been initiated into one of these, there exist specialist Lodges where Masons meet to celebrate anything from sport to Masonic research
Louis Barthou
Jean Louis Barthou was a French politician of the Third Republic who served as Prime Minister of France for eight months in 1913. In social policy, Barthous time as Prime Minister saw the introduction of allowances to families with children, Louis Barthou was born on August 25,1862 in Oloron-Sainte-Marie, Pyrénées-Atlantiques, France. He served as Deputy from his home constituency and he was an authority on trade union history and law. He was Prime Minister from March 22,1913 to December 9,1913 and he held ministerial office thirteen other times. He served as Foreign Minister in 1934 and he was the primary figure behind the Franco-Soviet Treaty of Mutual Assistance of 1935, though it was signed by his successor, Pierre Laval. As a national World War I hero and a recognized author and he succeeded in obtaining entry of the Soviet Union into the League of Nations in September 1934. As Foreign Minister, Barthou met King Alexander I of Yugoslavia during his visit to Marseille in October 1934. On 9 October, the King and Barthou were assassinated by Velicko Kerin, one of the bullets struck Barthou in the arm, passing though and fatally severing an artery.
He died of blood loss less than an hour later. The assassination was planned in Rome by Ante Pavelić, head of the Croatian Ustaše, Pavelić was assisted by Georg Percevic, a former Austro-Hungarian military officer. France unsuccessfully requested extradition of Percevic and Pavelić and this assassination ended the careers of the Bouches-du-Rhone prefect, Pierre Jouhannaud, and the director of the Surete Nationale, Jean Berthoin. The assassination of Barthou and the King led to the Convention for the Prevention, the Convention was signed by 25 nations, ratified only by India. Barthou was granted a state funeral four days after his demise, Louis Barthou at Find a Grave The King is Dead, Long Live the Balkans. Watching the Marseilles Murders of 1934 The Watson Institute
Alexandre Millerand
Alexandre Millerand was a French politician. He was Prime Minister of France from 20 January to 23 September 1920, born in Paris, he was educated for the Bar and was elected Secrétaire of the Conférence du Barreau de Paris. He made his reputation through his defence, in company with Georges Laguerre, of Ernest Roche and Duc-Quercy and he took Laguerres place on Georges Clemenceaus newspaper, La Justice. He was elected to the Chamber of Deputies for the Seine département in 1885 as a Radical Socialist and he was associated with Clemenceau and Camille Pelletan as an arbitrator in the Carmaux strike. He had long had the ear of the Chamber in matters of social legislation and he was chief of the Independent Socialist faction, a group which mustered sixty members, and edited until 1896 their organ in the press, La Petite République. His programme included the ownership of the means of production. Labour questions were entrusted to a department, the Direction du Travail. He further secured the rigorous application of laws devised for the protection of the working class.
His name was associated with a project for the establishment of old age pensions. In 1898, he became editor of La Lanterne and his influence with the far left had already declined, for it was said that his departure from the true Marxist tradition had disintegrated the movement. He continued to move to the right, being appointed Prime Minister by the conservative President, during his time as Prime Minister, a decree of February 1920 introduced the eight-hour day for seamen. When Deschanel had to that year due to his mental disorder. Millerand appointed Georges Leygues, a politician with a career of ministerial office, as Prime Minister. This move was resisted in the Chamber of Deputies and the French Senate, briands appointment was welcomed by both left and right, although the Socialists and the left wing of the Radical Party did not join his government. However, Millerand dismissed Briand after just a year, and appointed the conservative republican, Millerand was accused of favouring conservatives in spite of the traditional neutrality of French Presidents and the composition of the legislature.
On 14 July 1922, Millerand escaped an attempt by Gustave Bouvet. Two years later, Millerand resigned in the face of growing conflict between the legislature and the office of the President, following the victory of the Cartel des Gauches. Gaston Doumergue, who was the president of the Senate at the time, was chosen to replace Millerand, Alexandre Millerand died in 1943 at Versailles, and was interred in the Passy Cemetery
Camille Chautemps
Camille Chautemps was a French Radical politician of the Third Republic, three times President of the Council. Described as intellectually bereft, Chautemps nevertheless entered politics and became Mayor of Tours in 1912, between 1924 and 1926, he served in the centre-left coalition governments of Édouard Herriot, Paul Painlevé and Aristide Briand. He quitted Freemasonry in 1938 for political reasons and he became President of the Council briefly in 1930. Again in centre-left governments in 1932 to 1934, he served as Interior Minister and became Prime Minister again in November 1933. His government fell, and he resigned his posts on 27 January 1934 as a result of the corruption exposed by the Stavisky Affair, when the press accused him of having Stavisky murdered to silence him. In Léon Blums Popular Front government of 1936, Chautemps was a Minister of State, the franc was devalued, but government finances remained in a mess. Pursuing the program of the Popular Front, he proceeded in the nationalisation of the railroads to create the SNCF, however, in January 1938, he drove the Socialists out of his government.
In February, he granted married women financial and legal independence and alloweed them to go to university and his government fell on 10 March. France having declared war on Germany in September 1939, in May 1940, on the 11th, during a Cabinet meeting, Chautemps suggested that Churchill be invited back to France to discuss the hopeless situation. The Cabinet met again on the 14th, almost evenly split on the question of an Armistice with Germany, Chautemps now suggested to break the deadlock, that they should get a neutral authority to enquire what the German terms would be. If honourable, they could agree to study them, if not, they could all agree to fight on. The Chautemps peoposa passed by 13 to 6, soon afterward, Charles de Gaulle, now in London, telephoned Reynaud to give him the British Governments offer of joint nationality for French and British in a Franco-British union. A delighted Reynaud put it to a cabinet meeting and was supported by five of his ministers. Georges Mandel was flinging accusations of cowardice around the room, and Chautemps and it was now clear that Reynaud would not accept the Chautemps proposal, and Reynaud resigned.
Chautemps broke with Pétains government after arriving in the United States on an official mission, after World War II, a French court convicted him in absentia for collaborating with the enemy). Eugène Frot succeeds Lamoureux as Minister of Labour and Social Security Provisions, william Bertrand succeeds Frot as Minister of Merchant Marine. e
Minister of the Armed Forces (France)
The Ministry of Defence is the French cabinet member charged with running the military of France. The minister in charge of the French military has evolved within the epoque, the minister is always attached to a ministry or state secretary bureau, today attached to the Ministry of Defense. The Secretary of State of War was one of the four specialised secretaries of state established in France in 1589 and this State Secretary was responsible for the French Army. In 1791, the secretary of state of war becomes Minister of War, with this function being abolished in 1794. In 1930, the position was referred to as Minister of War. The current Minister of Defence and Veterans Affairs is Jean-Yves Le Drian. org
Alexandre Ribot
Alexandre-Félix-Joseph Ribot was a French politician, four times Prime Minister. Ribot was born in Saint-Omer, Pas-de-Calais, after a brilliant academic career at the University of Paris, where he was lauréat of the faculty of law, he rapidly made his mark at the bar. He was secretary of the conference of advocates and one of the founders of the Sociéte de legislation comparée, during 1875 and 1876 he was successively director of criminal affairs and secretary-general at the ministry of justice. His impassioned yet reasoned eloquence gave him an influence which was increased by his articles in the Parlement in which he opposed violent measures against the unauthorized congregations and he devoted himself especially to financial questions, and in 1882 was reporter of the budget. He became one of the most prominent republican opponents of the Radical party and he refused to vote the credits demanded by the Ferry cabinet for the Tongking expedition, and helped Georges Clemenceau overthrow the ministry in 1885.
At the general election of that year he was a victim of the Republican rout in the Pas-de-Calais, after 1889 he sat for Saint-Omer. His fear of the Boulangist movement converted him to the policy of Republican Concentration and he retained his post in Émile Loubets ministry, and on its defeat he became president of the council, retaining the direction of foreign affairs. The government resigned in March 1893 over the refusal of the chamber to accept the Senates amendments to the budget, on the election of Félix Faure as president of the Republic in January 1895, Ribot again became premier and minister of finance. On 10 June he was able to make the first official announcement of an alliance with Russia. On 30 October the government was defeated on the question of the Chemin de fer du Sud, after the fall of Jules Mélines ministry in 1898 M. Ribot tried in vain to form a cabinet of conciliation. He was elected, at the end of 1898, president of the important commission on education and he was re-elected deputy for Saint-Omer in 1906.
In the same year he became a member of the Académie française in succession to the duc dAudiffret-Pasquier, in justification of his policy in opposition he published in 1905 two volumes of his Discours politiques. On 3 January 1909, Ribot was elected a member of the French Senate, and in February of the year was offered, but refused. In 1913 he was a candidate for the presidency of the Republic, and on the fall of Barthous Government was invited by Poincaré, who was now President, to form a Cabinet. In 1914 he became, with Jean Dupuy, leader of the Left Republican group which refused to accept the decisions of the Radical Socialist congress at Pau in October 1913. On June 9,1914, Ribot became Prime Minister and Minister of Justice, but his Government was bitterly assailed by the Radical Socialists as well as other groups, and only lasted one day. With the outbreak of World War I Ribots great reputation as an expert in finance, on 27 August 1914 he became Minister of Finance in Vivianis Ministry of National Defence, an office which he retained when, on 28 October 1915, Aristide Briand succeeded Viviani as Prime Minister.
On February 7,1916 he visited London and held a conference with the Chancellor of the Exchequer at the Treasury, when Briand reconstituted his Cabinet, in December 1916, Ribot retained the portfolio of Finance
Russia
Russia, 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, 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 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
Media related to Gaston Doumergue at Wikimedia Commons
