Sergeant
Sergeant is a rank in many uniformed organisations, principally military and policing forces. The alternate spelling, "serjeant", is used in The Rifles and other units that draw their heritage from the British Light Infantry, its origin is the Latin "serviens", "one who serves", through the French term "sergent". The term "sergeant" refers to a non-commissioned officer placed above the rank of a corporal and a police officer below a lieutenant or, in the UK, below an inspector. In most armies the rank of sergeant corresponds to command of a squad. In Commonwealth armies, it is a more senior rank, corresponding to a platoon second-in-command. In the United States Army, sergeant is a more junior rank corresponding to a four-soldier fireteam leader. More senior non-commissioned ranks are variations on sergeant, for example staff sergeant, first sergeant and sergeant major. Many countries use sergeant rank, whether in English or using a cognate with the same origin in another language; the equivalent rank in Arab armies is "raqeeb", meaning "overseer" or "watcher".
In medieval European usage, a sergeant was any attendant or officer with a protective duty. Any medieval knight or military order of knighthood might have "sergeants-at-arms", meaning servants able to fight if needed; the etymology of the term is from Anglo-French sergant, serjant "servant, court official, soldier", from Middle Latin servientem "servant, soldier". A "soldier sergeant" was a man of what would now be thought of as the "middle class", fulfilling a junior role to the knight in the medieval hierarchy. Sergeants could fight either as heavy to light cavalry, or as well trained professional infantry, either spearmen or crossbowmen. Most notable medieval mercenaries fell into the "sergeant" class, such as Flemish crossbowmen and spearmen, who were seen as reliable quality troops; the sergeant class was deemed to be'worth half of a knight' in military value. A specific kind of military sergeant was the serjeant-at-arms, one of a body of armed men retained by English lords and monarchs.
The title is now given to an officer in modern legislative bodies, charged with keeping order during meetings and, if necessary, forcibly removing disruptive members. The term had civilian applications quite distinct and different from the military sergeant, though sharing the etymological origin - for example the serjeant-at-law an important and prestigious order of English lawyers. "Sergeant" is the lowest rank of sergeant, with individual military entities choosing some additional words to signify higher ranking individuals. What terms are used, what seniority they signify, is to a great extent dependent on the individual armed service; the term "sergeant" is used in many appointment titles. In most non-naval military or paramilitary organizations, the various grades of sergeant are non-commissioned officers ranking above privates and corporals, below warrant officers and commissioned officers; the responsibilities of a sergeant differ from army to army. There are several ranks of sergeant, each corresponding to greater experience and responsibility for the daily lives of the soldiers of larger units.
Sergeants are team leaders in charge of an entire team of constables to senior constables at large stations, to being in charge of sectors involving several police stations. In country areas, sergeants are in charge of an entire station and its constabulary. Senior sergeants are in specialist areas and are in charge of sergeants and thus act as middle management. Sergeant is a rank in both the Royal Australian Air Force; the ranks are equivalent to the Royal Australian Navy rank of petty officer. Although the rank insignia of the RAAF rank of flight sergeant and the Australian Army rank of staff sergeant are identical, flight sergeant in fact outranks the rank of staff sergeant in the classification of rank equivalencies; the Australian Army rank of staff sergeant is now redundant and is no longer awarded, due to being outside the rank equivalencies and the next promotional rank is warrant officer class two. Chief petty officers and flight sergeants are not required to call a warrant officer class two "sir" in accordance with Australian Defence Force Regulations 1952.
The rank of sergeant exists in all Australian police forces and is of higher ranking than a constable or senior constable, but lower than an inspector. The sergeant structure varies among state police forces two sergeant ranks are classed as non-commissioned officers: Sergeant. A brevet sergeant is less senior than a sergeant. New South Wales Police Force has the additional rank of incremental sergeant; this is an incremental progression, following appointment as a sergeant for seven years. An incremental sergeant rank is less senior than a senior sergeant but is more senior than a sergeant. Upon appointment as a sergeant or senior sergeant, the sergeant is given: A warrant of appointment under the commissioner's hand and seal. A navy blue backing A navy blue nameplate A silver chinstrap positioned above his peaked cap on his headdress, replacing a black chinstrap. Within the New South Wales Police Force, sergeant is a team leader or supervisory rank
Mongolia
Mongolia is a landlocked country in East Asia. Its area is equivalent with the historical territory of Outer Mongolia, that term is sometimes used to refer to the current state, it is sandwiched between China to Russia to the north. Mongolia does not share a border with Kazakhstan. At 1,564,116 square kilometres, Mongolia is the 18th-largest and the most sparsely populated sovereign state in the world, with a population of around three million people, it is the world's second-largest landlocked country behind Kazakhstan and the largest landlocked country that does not border a closed sea. The country contains little arable land, as much of its area is covered by grassy steppe, with mountains to the north and west and the Gobi Desert to the south. Ulaanbaatar, the capital and largest city, is home to about 45% of the country's population. Ulaanbaatar shares the rank of the world's coldest capital city with Moscow and Nur-Sultan. 30% of the population is nomadic or semi-nomadic. The majority of its population are Buddhists.
The non-religious population is the second largest group. Islam is the dominant religion among ethnic Kazakhs; the majority of the state's citizens are of Mongol ethnicity, although Kazakhs and other minorities live in the country in the west. Mongolia joined the World Trade Organization in 1997 and seeks to expand its participation in regional economic and trade groups; the area of what is now Mongolia has been ruled by various nomadic empires, including the Xiongnu, the Xianbei, the Rouran, the Turkic Khaganate, others. In 1206, Genghis Khan founded the Mongol Empire, which became the largest contiguous land empire in history, his grandson Kublai Khan conquered China to establish the Yuan dynasty. After the collapse of the Yuan, the Mongols retreated to Mongolia and resumed their earlier pattern of factional conflict, except during the era of Dayan Khan and Tumen Zasagt Khan. In the 16th century, Tibetan Buddhism began to spread in Mongolia, being further led by the Manchu-founded Qing dynasty, which absorbed the country in the 17th century.
By the early 1900s one-third of the adult male population were Buddhist monks. After the collapse of the Qing dynasty in 1911, Mongolia declared independence, achieved actual independence from the Republic of China in 1921. Shortly thereafter, the country came under the control of the Soviet Union, which had aided its independence from China. In 1924, the Mongolian People's Republic was founded as a socialist state. After the anti-Communist revolutions of 1989, Mongolia conducted its own peaceful democratic revolution in early 1990; this led to a multi-party system, a new constitution of 1992, transition to a market economy. Homo erectus inhabited Mongolia from 850,000 years ago. Modern humans reached Mongolia 40,000 years ago during the Upper Paleolithic; the Khoit Tsenkher Cave in Khovd Province shows lively pink and red ochre paintings of mammoths, bactrian camels, ostriches, earning it the nickname "the Lascaux of Mongolia". The venus figurines of Mal'ta testify to the level of Upper Paleolithic art in northern Mongolia.
Neolithic agricultural settlements, such as those at Norovlin, Tamsagbulag and Rashaan Khad, predated the introduction of horse-riding nomadism, a pivotal event in the history of Mongolia which became the dominant culture. Horse-riding nomadism has been documented by archeological evidence in Mongolia during the Copper and Bronze Age Afanasevo culture; the wheeled vehicles found in the burials of the Afanasevans have been dated to before 2200 BC. Pastoral nomadism and metalworking became more developed with the Okunev culture, Andronovo culture and Karasuk culture, culminating with the Iron Age Xiongnu Empire in 209 BC. Monuments of the pre-Xiongnu Bronze Age include deer stones, keregsur kurgans, square slab tombs, rock paintings. Although cultivation of crops has continued since the Neolithic, agriculture has always remained small in scale compared to pastoral nomadism. Agriculture arose independently in the region; the population during the Copper Age has been described as mongoloid in the east of what is now Mongolia, as europoid in the west.
Tocharians and Scythians inhabited western Mongolia during the Bronze Age. The mummy of a Scythian warrior, believed to be about 2,500 years old, was a 30- to 40-year-old man with blond hair; as equine nomadism was introduced into Mongolia, the political center of the Eurasian Steppe shifted to Mongolia, where it remained until the 18th century CE. The intrusions of northern pastoralists into China during the Shang dynasty and Zhou dynasty presaged the age of nomadic empires; the concept of Mongolia as an independent power north of China is expressed in a letter sent by Emperor Wen of Han to Laoshang Chanyu in 162 BC: Since prehistoric times, Mongolia has been inhabited by nomads who, from time to time, formed great confederations that rose to power and prominence. Common institutions were the office of the Khan, the Kurultai and right wings, imperial army and the decimal military system; the first of these empires, the Xiongnu of undetermined
Soviet Union
The Soviet Union the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics, was a socialist state in Eurasia that existed from 1922 to 1991. Nominally a union of multiple national Soviet republics, its government and economy were centralized; the country was a one-party state, governed by the Communist Party with Moscow as its capital in its largest republic, the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic. Other major urban centres were Leningrad, Minsk, Alma-Ata, Novosibirsk, it spanned over 10,000 kilometres east to west across 11 time zones, over 7,200 kilometres north to south. It had five climate zones: tundra, steppes and mountains; the Soviet Union had its roots in the 1917 October Revolution, when the Bolsheviks, led by Vladimir Lenin, overthrew the Russian Provisional Government which had replaced Tsar Nicholas II during World War I. In 1922, the Soviet Union was formed by a treaty which legalized the unification of the Russian, Transcaucasian and Byelorussian republics that had occurred from 1918. Following Lenin's death in 1924 and a brief power struggle, Joseph Stalin came to power in the mid-1920s.
Stalin committed the state's ideology to Marxism–Leninism and constructed a command economy which led to a period of rapid industrialization and collectivization. During his rule, political paranoia fermented and the Great Purge removed Stalin's opponents within and outside of the party via arbitrary arrests and persecutions of many people, resulting in at least 600,000 deaths. In 1933, a major famine struck the country. Before the start of World War II in 1939, the Soviets signed the Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact, agreeing to non-aggression with Nazi Germany, after which the USSR invaded Poland on 17 September 1939. In June 1941, Germany broke the pact and invaded the Soviet Union, opening the largest and bloodiest theatre 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 intense battles such as Stalingrad and Kursk; the territories overtaken by the Red Army became satellite states of the Soviet Union.
The post-war division of Europe into capitalist and communist halves would lead to increased tensions with the United States-led Western Bloc, known as the Cold War. Stalin died in 1953 and was succeeded by Nikita Khrushchev, who in 1956 denounced Stalin and began the de-Stalinization; the Cuban Missile Crisis occurred during Khrushchev's rule, among the many factors that led to his downfall in 1964. In the early 1970s, there was a brief détente of relations with the United States, but tensions resumed with the Soviet–Afghan War in 1979. In 1985, the last Soviet premier, Mikhail Gorbachev, sought to reform and liberalize the economy through his policies of glasnost and perestroika, which caused political instability. In 1989, Soviet satellite states in Eastern Europe overthrew their respective communist governments; as part of an attempt to prevent the country's dissolution due to rising nationalist and separatist movements, a referendum was held in March 1991, boycotted by some republics, that resulted in a majority of participating citizens voting in favor of preserving the union as a renewed federation.
Gorbachev's power was diminished after Russian President Boris Yeltsin's high-profile role in facing down a coup d'état attempted by Communist Party hardliners. In late 1991, Gorbachev resigned and the Supreme Soviet of the Soviet Union met and formally dissolved the Soviet Union; the remaining 12 constituent republics emerged as independent post-Soviet states, with the Russian Federation—formerly the Russian SFSR—assuming the Soviet Union's rights and obligations and being recognized as the successor state. The Soviet Union was a powerhouse of many significant technological achievements and innovations of the 20th century, including the world's first human-made satellite, the first humans in space and the first probe to land on another planet, Venus; the country had the largest standing military in the world. The Soviet Union was recognized as one of the five nuclear weapons states and possessed the largest stockpile of weapons of mass destruction, it was a founding permanent member of the United Nations Security Council as well as a member of the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe, the World Federation of Trade Unions and the leading member of the Council for Mutual Economic Assistance and the Warsaw Pact.
The word "Soviet" is derived from a Russian word сове́т meaning council, advice, harmony and all deriving from the proto-Slavic verbal stem of vět-iti, related to Slavic věst, English "wise", the root in "ad-vis-or", or the Dutch weten. The word sovietnik means "councillor". A number of organizations in Russian history were called "council". For example, in the Russian Empire the State Council, which functioned from 1810 to 1917, was referred to as a Council of Ministers after the revolt of 1905. During the Georgian Affair, Vladimir Lenin envisioned an expression of Great Russian ethnic chauvinism by Joseph Stalin and his supporters, calling for these nation-states to join Russia as semi-independent parts of a greater union, which he named as the Union of Soviet Republics of Europe and Asia. Stalin resisted the proposal, but accepted it, although with Lenin's agreement changed the name of the newly proposed sta
The Twelve Chairs (1971 film)
The Twelve Chairs is a 1971 Soviet comedy film directed by Leonid Gaidai. It is an adaptation of The Twelve Chairs. Archil Gomiashvili as Ostap Bender Sergey Filippov as Kisa Vorobianinov Mikhail Pugovkin as Father Fyodor Natalya Krachkovskaya as Madame Gritsatsuyeva Igor Yasulovich as Ernest Shchukin, engineer Natalya Vorobyova as Ellochka Schukina, Ernest Shchukin's wife Klara Rumyanova as Katerina Alexandrovna Natalya Varley as Liza Georgy Vitsin as fitter Mechnikov Yuri Nikulin as janitor Tikhon Glikeriya Bogdanova-Chesnokova as Elena Stanislavovna Bour Vladimir Etush as Andrey Bruns The Twelve Chairs on IMDb
Kidnapping, Caucasian Style
Kidnapping, Caucasian Style is a 1967 Soviet comedy film dealing with a humorous plot revolving around bride kidnapping, an old tradition that used to exist in certain regions of the Northern Caucasus. The original title derives from the Alexander Pushkin poem The Prisoner of the Caucasus and Leo Tolstoy's short story The Prisoner of the Caucasus; the film was directed by Leonid Gaidai. It is the last film featuring the trio of the "Coward", the "Fool", the "Pro", a group of bumbling antiheroes similar in some ways to the Three Stooges; the film premiered in Moscow on April 1, 1967. Film had strong similarity with early Hollywood film The Rogue Song by Irving Thalberg; as a result of the popularity of the earlier film, Operation Y, Yakov Kostyukovsky and Moris Slobodsky requested Mosfilm to support a new film about the character of Shurik. The screenplay for the new film was titled "Shurik in the mountains" and was divided into two parts; the first part, "Prisoner of the Caucasus", was about the student Nina who comes to visit her relatives in the Caucasus and is kidnapped by a local director named Okhokhov.
The second part, "Snow Man and Others", was about a scientific expedition seeking the Yeti in a mountainous region, with the Coward, the Fool, the Pro pretending to be the Yeti by way of hiding from the local militia. In the end and Nina were supposed to expose the trio; as the process went forward, it was decided to focus on just the first part of the screenplay. Yuri Nikulin and Evgeny Morgunov refused to be part of the film as they felt the screenplay was too unrealistic. In the end, Gaidai convinced both actors to reprise their roles by agreeing to make some adjustments to the screenplay, it took a long time to cast the role of Nina, with more than 500 screen tests completed before Natalya Varley was selected for the role. Because she worked as a circus tight rope walker prior to acting, she had an easier time with the stunt work and physicality required in the role. On the other hand, her relative lack of acting experience made the dialogue scenes more challenging for her. In the case of the character of Saakhov, there were disagreements between Gaidai and the actor playing Saakhov, Vladimir Etush.
While Etush thought Saakhov should be played as an accomplished, intelligent man who takes himself Gaidai wanted more of an over-the-top performance. During production, the screenplay was altered by Soviet censors. For instance, a phrase yelled by the Coward was written as: "Long live the Soviet justice system, the most humanitarian justice system in the world!" was changed to "Long live our justice system, the most humanitarian justice system in the world!" as the original was viewed as too mocking the Soviet justice system. After release, it became the biggest Soviet hit of 1967 and became known as one of the greatest Russian comedies of all time. A kind, yet naïve, ethnography student named Shurik, known from earlier films as a student at the Polytechnic Institute, goes to the Caucasus to learn ancient customs and traditions practiced by the locals, including local "myths and toasts". At the start of the film, Shurik is making his way along a mountain road in the Caucasus on a donkey, he comes upon a truck driver named Edik.
The donkey gets stubborn and neither man is able to get his respective mode of transportation going. A young woman named Nina comes walking down the road; the donkey begins to move after her and the truck starts working again. Nina is "a higher education student, an athlete, a member of the Komsomol, last but not least — a beauty", her uncle, Comrade Dzhabrail, works as a chauffeur for tovarisch Saakhov, the director of the regional agricultural cooperative and the wealthiest and most powerful man in town. Saakhov likes Nina and invites her to take part in a ribbon-cutting ceremony for a new Civil registry. Shurik shows up to the ribbon-cutting drunk because the locals refused to tell him local toasts unless he drank to each of them, he carted off by the militsiya. Meanwhile, Saakhov decides to marry Nina and strikes a deal with Dzhabrail to purchase the bride in return for 20 heads of sheep and an imported Finnish Rosenlew refrigerator. Rather than asking for Nina's agreement, which her uncle realizes would be impossible to get, they decide to kidnap her instead.
The trio of the Coward, the Fool, the Pro are hired to do the job, but find it difficult to get Nina alone because she has started to spend a lot of time with Shurik. At this point, Saakhov has the idea to unwittingly get Shurik in on it by telling him that the kidnapping of the bride is a local custom. Dzhabrail meets with Shurik in a restaurant and tells him this story, lying to him that Nina has agreed to marry Saakhov and that she wants to be kidnapped in order to comply with tradition. Shurik is devastated because he is in love with Nina, but thinking that this is what she wants, he agrees to help. Nina spends a night in a sleeping bag. Shurik tells her an emotional good-bye and, misunderstanding him, she shrugs and says good-bye. Shurik zips her up in her sleeping bag and signals to the Coward, the Fool, the Pro, who run over to grab the helpless Nina and transport her to Saakhov's dacha. Soon after, Shurik learns that the kidnapping was real and the story about it being a custom was a lie.
Shurik runs to the militsiya, but Saakhov is waiting for him outside. Saakhov explains to Shurik that if he says anything, the militsiya will arrest him as a
O. Henry
William Sydney Porter, better known by his pen name O. Henry, was an American short story writer, his stories are known for their surprise endings. William Sidney Porter was born on September 1862, in Greensboro, North Carolina, he changed the spelling of his middle name to Sydney in 1898. His parents were Dr. Algernon Sidney Porter, a physician, Mary Jane Virginia Swaim Porter. William's parents had married on April 20, 1858; when William was three, his mother died after birthing her third child, he and his father moved into the home of his paternal grandmother. As a child, Porter was always everything from classics to dime novels. Porter graduated from his aunt Evelina Maria Porter's elementary school in 1876, he enrolled at the Lindsey Street High School. His aunt continued to tutor him until he was 15. In 1879, he started working in his uncle's drugstore in Greensboro, on August 30, 1881, at the age of 19, Porter was licensed as a pharmacist. At the drugstore, he showed his natural artistic talents by sketching the townsfolk.
Porter traveled with Dr. James K. Hall to Texas in March 1882, hoping that a change of air would help alleviate a persistent cough he had developed, he took up residence on the sheep ranch of Richard Hall, James' son, in La Salle County and helped out as a shepherd, ranch hand and baby-sitter. While on the ranch, he learned bits of German from the mix of immigrant ranch hands, he spent time reading classic literature. Porter's health did improve, he traveled with Richard to Austin, Texas in 1884, where he decided to remain and was welcomed into the home of Richard's friends, Joseph Harrell and his wife. Porter resided with the Harrells for three years, he went to work for the Morley Brothers Drug Company as a pharmacist. Porter moved on to work for the Harrell Cigar Store located in the Driskill Hotel, he began writing as a sideline and wrote many of his early stories in the Harrell house. As a young bachelor, Porter led an active social life in Austin, he was known for his wit, musical talents. He played both mandolin.
He sang in the choir at St. David's Episcopal Church and became a member of the "Hill City Quartette", a group of young men who sang at gatherings and serenaded young women of the town. Porter began courting Athol Estes, 17 years old and from a wealthy family. Historians believe Porter met Athol at the laying of the cornerstone of the Texas State Capitol on March 2, 1885, her mother objected to the match. On July 1, 1887, Porter eloped with Athol and were married in the parlor of the home of Reverend R. K. Smoot, pastor of the Central Presbyterian Church, where the Estes family attended church; the couple continued to participate in musical and theater groups, Athol encouraged her husband to pursue his writing. Athol gave birth to a son in 1888, who died hours after birth, daughter Margaret Worth Porter in September 1889. Porter's friend Richard Hall offered Porter a job. Porter started as a draftsman at the Texas General Land Office on January 12, 1887, at a salary of $100 a month, drawing maps from surveys and fieldnotes.
The salary was enough to support his family, but he continued his contributions to magazines and newspapers. In the GLO building, he began developing characters and plots for such stories as "Georgia's Ruling", "Buried Treasure"; the castle-like building he worked in was woven into some of his tales such as "Bexar Scrip No. 2692". His job at the GLO was a political appointment by Hall. Hall lost. Porter resigned on January 1891, the day after the new governor, Jim Hogg, was sworn in; the same year, Porter began working at the First National Bank of Austin as a teller and bookkeeper at the same salary he had made at the GLO. The bank was operated informally, Porter was careless in keeping his books and may have embezzled funds. In 1894, he was accused by the bank of embezzlement and lost his job but was not indicted at the time, he worked full-time on his humorous weekly called The Rolling Stone, which he started while working at the bank. The Rolling Stone featured satire on life and politics and included Porter's short stories and sketches.
Although reaching a top circulation of 1,500, The Rolling Stone failed in April 1895 because the paper never provided an adequate income. However, his writing and drawings had caught the attention of the editor at the Houston Post. Porter and his family moved to Houston in 1895, his salary was only $25 a month, but it rose as his popularity increased. Porter gathered ideas for his column by loitering in hotel lobbies and observing and talking to people there; this was a technique. While he was in Houston, federal auditors audited the First National Bank of Austin and found the embezzlement shortages that led to his firing. A federal indictment followed, he was arrested on charges of embezzlement. Porter's father-in-law posted bail to keep him out of jail, he was due to stand trial on July 7, 1896, but the day before, as he was changing trains to get to the courthouse, an impulse hit him. He fled, first to New Orleans and to Honduras, with which the United States had no extradition treaty at that time.
Porter lived in Honduras for only six months, until January 1897. There he became friends with Al Jennings, a notorious train robber, who wrote a book about their friendship, he holed up in a Tru
Natalya Seleznyova
Natalya Igorevna Seleznyova is a Soviet and Russian theater and film actress. She first took the stage at the age of six, her notable cinema work includes roles in films directed by Leonid Gaidai, like Operation Y and Shurik's Other Adventures and Ivan Vasilievich: Back to the Future. In 1966 she graduated from the Boris Shchukin Theatre Institute and became an actress of Moscow Academic Theatre of Satire. In 1968, on the set of film "Caliph-Stork" met with the actor Vladimir Andreyev, whom she married. In the 1970s she became famous in the USSR as Mrs. Katarina, one of the main characters in "The 13 Chairs Pub" TV series. In 2014, Seleznyova became an assistant to the Children's Rights Commissioner for the President of the Russian Federation. Honored Artist of the RSFSR People's Artist of Russia Order of Friendship Order of Honour Natalya Seleznyova on IMDb Наталья Селезнёва at the KinoExpert.ru
