1.
List of heads of state of the Soviet Union
–
Under the 1924,1936 and 1977 Soviet Constitution these bodies served as the collective head of state of the Soviet Union. The Chairman of these bodies personally performed the ceremonial functions assigned to a single head of state. The Soviet Union was established in 1922, however, the countrys first constitution was adopted in 1924. Before that time, the 1918 Constitution of the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic was adopted as the constitution of the USSR, the CEC could also limit taxes. In periods between convocations of the Congress of Soviets the CEC held supreme power, in between sessions of the Congress of Soviets the CEC was responsible for all the affairs of the Congress of Soviets. The CEC and the Congress of Soviets was replaced by the Presidium, the Supreme Soviet was the highest organ of state power, and was the sole organ to hold legislative power in the Soviet Union. Sessions of the Supreme Soviet were convened by the Presidium twice a year, however, in the event of a disagreement between the Soviet of the Union and the Soviet of Nationalities the Presidium could form a conciliation commission. If this commission failed the Presidium could dissolve the Supreme Soviet, the Presidency was established in 1990 and the President would, according to the altered constitution, be elected by the Soviet people by direct and secret ballot. However, the first and only Soviet President, Mikhail Gorbachev, was elected by the democratically elected Congress of Peoples Deputies, in connection with the dissolution of the Soviet Union national elections for the office of President never took place. To be elected to the office a person must have been a Soviet citizen and older than thirty-five, the same person could not be elected president for more than two terms. The Presidency was the highest state office, and was the most important office in the Soviet Union by influence and recognition, eclipsing that of Premier, with the establishment of the Presidency executive power was shared between the President and the Prime Minister. The first head of state was Mikhail Kalinin, who was inaugurated in 1922 after the Treaty on the Creation of the USSR, at over twenty years, Kalinin spent the longest time in office, he died shortly after his resignation in 1946. Andropov spent the shortest time in office, there have been four individuals appointed vice head of state. At over eight years, Vasily Kuznetsov spent the longest time in office, gennady Yanayev spent the shortest time in office
List of heads of state of the Soviet Union
–
Mikhail Kalinin (1875–1946)
List of heads of state of the Soviet Union
–
State Emblem
List of heads of state of the Soviet Union
List of heads of state of the Soviet Union
2.
Presidium of the Supreme Soviet
–
The Presidium of the Supreme Soviet was a Soviet governmental institution – a permanent body of the Supreme Soviets. This body was of the level, as well as in all Soviet republics. Structure and functions of the presidiums in these republics were virtually identical, the presidiums were elected by the Supreme Soviet to act on its behalf while the soviet was not in session. Under the 1936 and 1977 Soviet Constitution the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet served as the head of state of the Soviet Union. Its building, situated inside the Moscow Kremlin, was named the Kremlin Presidium. The Presidium of the Supreme Soviet was elected by the Supreme Soviet of the USSR at a joint session of both chambers at the first session of each following convocation, the deputies of the Presidium were appointed for the duration of the term of office of the Supreme Soviet. The Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR consisted of a chairman, his 15 deputies, a secretary, the Presidium was accountable to the Supreme Soviet of the USSR for all its activities. The presidium also dealt with questions regarding the acquisition of the Soviet citizenship, its forfeiting or voluntary rejection
Presidium of the Supreme Soviet
–
Soviet Union
3.
Supreme Soviet of the Soviet Union
–
The Supreme Soviet of the Soviet Union was the highest legislative body in the Soviet Union and the only one with the power to pass constitutional amendments. It elected the Presidium serving as the head of state of the Soviet Union, formed the Council of Ministers and the Supreme Court. The administrative units of the type would send in the same number of members regardless of their size or population. Under the Soviet constitutions of 1936 and 1977, the Supreme Soviet was imbued with great lawmaking powers, after 1989 it consisted of 542 deputies. The meetings of the body were more frequent, from six to eight months a year. The presidium carried out the operations of the Supreme Soviet when it was not in session. Beside the Supreme Council, in the Soviet Union supreme councils also existed in each of union, the supreme councils of republican level also were headed by their presidiums, but all those councils consisted of one chamber. All republics in the Soviet Union were soviet, yet 15 were of union level, while the other, autonomous republics, were subordinated to the union republics
Supreme Soviet of the Soviet Union
Supreme Soviet of the Soviet Union
–
Supreme Soviet of the Soviet Union Верховный Совет СССР
4.
Anastas Mikoyan
–
Anastas Ivanovich Mikoyan was an Old Bolshevik and Soviet statesman during the mandates of Lenin, Stalin, Khrushchev, and Brezhnev. Mikoyan became a convert to the Bolshevik cause. He was a supporter of Stalin during the immediate post-Lenin years. During Stalins rule, Mikoyan held several governmental posts, including that of Minister of Foreign Trade. By the end of Stalins rule, Mikoyan began to favour with him. In October 1952 at the 19th Party Congress Stalin even attacked Mikoyan viciously, when Stalin died in 1953, Mikoyan again took a leading role in policy-making. He backed Khrushchev and his policy, and became First Deputy Premier under Khrushchev. Mikoyans position under Khrushchev made him the second most powerful figure in the Soviet Union at the time, in 1964 Khrushchev was forced to step down in a coup that brought Brezhnev to power. Mikoyan served as Chairman of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet, Mikoyan was born to Armenian parents in the village of Sanahin, then a part of the Yelizavetpol Governorate of the Russian Empire in 1895. His father, Hovhannes, worked as a carpenter and his mother was a rug weaver, Mikoyan received his education at the Nersisian School in Tiflis and the Gevorgian Seminary in Echmiadzin. Religion, however, played an insignificant role in his life. Before becoming active in politics Mikoyan had already dabbled in the study of liberalism and socialism, at the age of twenty, he formed a workers soviet in Echmiadzin. In 1915 Mikoyan formally joined the Bolshevik faction of the Russian Social Democratic Labour Party, during this time, he is said to have robbed a bank in Tiflis with TNT and had his nose broken in street fighting. After the February 1917 revolution that toppled the Tsarist government, Mikoyan, Mikoyan became a commissar in the newly formed Red Army and continued to fight in Baku against anti-Bolshevik forces. He was wounded in the fighting and was noted for saving the life of fellow Party-member Sergo Ordzhonikidze, known as the Baku 26, all the commissars were executed with the sole exception of Mikoyan, the circumstances of his survival are shrouded in mystery. In February 1919 Mikoyan returned to Baku and resumed his activities there, Mikoyan supported Stalin, whom he had first met in 1919, in the power struggle that followed Lenins death in 1924, he had become a member of the Bolshevik Central Committee in 1923. As Peoples Commissar for External and Internal Trade from 1926, he imported ideas from the West, in 1935 he was elected to the Politburo, and was among one of the first Soviet leaders to pay goodwill trips to the United States in order to boost economic cooperation. Mikoyan spent three months in the United States, where he not only learned more about its food industry but also met and spoke with Henry Ford, Mikoyan spearheaded a project to produce a home cookbook, which would encourage a return to the domestic kitchen
Anastas Mikoyan
–
Anastas Mikoyan
Anastas Mikoyan
–
The Caucasus trio: From left to right, Mikoyan,
Joseph Stalin, and
Sergo Ordzhonikidze.
Anastas Mikoyan
–
A. Badayev, Mikoyan, and
Sergei Kirov at a bread factory in Leningrad in 1927
Anastas Mikoyan
–
Mikoyan talking to
Wilhelm Pieck in
East Berlin,
East Germany, 1954.
5.
Leonid Brezhnev
–
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
Leonid Brezhnev
–
Brezhnev in
East Berlin in 1967
Leonid Brezhnev
–
Young Brezhnev with his wife
Victoria
Leonid Brezhnev
–
Brezhnev with
Nikita Khrushchev during the war
Leonid Brezhnev
–
Khrushchev in 1963, one year before his ousting
6.
Communist Party of Ukraine (Soviet Union)
–
The Communist Party of Ukraine, known as the Communist Party of Ukraine until 1952, was the Ukrainian branch of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union. The Communist Party of Ukraine was created in July 1918 in Moscow, after the signing of the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk the Bolshevik faction Social-Democracy of Ukraine was forced to dissolve as all Bolsheviks were forced out of Ukraine. On October 13,1952 the party officially was renamed as the Communist Party of Ukraine, on August 26,1991 the Communist Party was outlawed in Ukraine. Different sectors reconstituted themselves in different parties, the remaining members either changed political direction or created their own left-wing parties such as the Vitrenko bloc, Social-Democratic party, and others. Beside full members there also were candidate to the committee, the initial composition included Yan Hamarnik, Dmitriy Lebed, Mikhail Mayorov, Mykola Skrypnyk, Petro Slynko, Yakov Yakovlev. On September 9,1918 Mayorov and Slynko replaced Kertvelishvili and Farbman as full members, during World War II on October 2,1942 there was created the Illegal Central Committee of the Party consisting of 17 members. The committee was dissolved on June 29,1943, among the members of the committee were such personalities as Sydir Kovpak, Leonid Korniets, Oleksiy Fedorov, and others. The party had its own Politburo created on March 6,1919, on September 25,1952 the committee was renamed into the Bureau of the Central Committee of CPU, and in October the same year as the Bureau of the CC CPU. On October 10,1952 it became the Presidium of the CC CPU, on June 26,1966 again the bureau was finally left with its original name as the Politburo of the CC CPU. At first it consisted of five members and later one was added. The first Politburo included Andriy Bubnov, Emanuel Kviring, Volodymyr Mescheriakov, Heorhiy Pyatakov, Christian Rakovsky, from March 23 until April 15,1920 there was elected a Provisional Bureau which the next day was ratified by the Russian Communist Party. Along with Politburo the party like its Russian counterpart had its own Orgburo that was created the day as Politburo. The party was headed by its secretary, the position was highly influential and often was considered to be more important than the head of state. The following list is composed of the secretary of the Central Committee of the party who were the leaders of the Party, the position also was changing names between being called the First Secretary or the General Secretary, depending on a political atmosphere in the Soviet Union. The position was not officially of the head of state, but certainly was very influential, Mykola Oleksiiovych Skrypnyk There were 28 Congresses with the last one consisting out of two stages. There also were three consolidated conferences of the party from 1926 to 1932, at the second stage of the last Congress there were 273 members in the Central Committee. This took place in Moscow and decided to call for preparations for an uprising against the occupying Central Powers forces. There were only 15 members in the Central Committee and six candidates, promoted to members, Mikhail Mayorov and Pyotr Slinko This also took place in Moscow
Communist Party of Ukraine (Soviet Union)
–
1922 - 1934
Communist Party of Ukraine (Soviet Union)
–
1934 - 1938
Communist Party of Ukraine (Soviet Union)
–
1938 - 1941
Communist Party of Ukraine (Soviet Union)
–
1943 - 1991
7.
Petro Shelest
–
Petro Shelest was born in a peasant Ukrainian family in a village near Kharkiv in 1908. In 1928 he joined the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, between 1943 and 1954 Shelest was a chief manager of several large factories in Leningrad and Kiev. Between 1954 and 1962 he was the Mayor of Kiev in addition to becoming the secretary of the Ukrainian Communist party, soon he was promoted to the top position of first secretary of the Communist party of Ukrainian SSR and led it between 1963 and 1972. During his tenure and due to his cautious encouragement, there was a brief yet noticeable resurgence of the Ukrainian national culture, in 1972 he became deputy chairman of the Sovmin. Awarded Hero of Socialist Labor honorary title in 1968, in 1973 Petro Shelest was forced into retirement by Leonid Brezhnev. Petro Shelest, 100th anniversary of the birth of one of Ukraines most spectacular political figure, national deviationist Petro Shelest reappears after 15 years as non-person. Shelest,87, Ukraine Party Chief Ousted as Localist
Petro Shelest
–
Petro Shelest Петро Шелест
8.
Russian Empire
–
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
Russian Empire
–
Peter the Great officially renamed the Tsardom of Russia the Russian Empire in 1721, and himself its first emperor. He instituted the
sweeping reforms and oversaw the transformation of Russia into a major European power.
Russian Empire
–
Flag
Russian Empire
–
Empress
Catherine the Great, who reigned from 1762 to 1796, continued the empire's expansion and modernization. Considering herself an
enlightened absolutist, she played a key role in the
Russian Enlightenment.
Russian Empire
–
Catherine II Sestroretsk Rouble (1771) is made of solid copper measuring 77 millimetres (3 3 ⁄ 100 in) (diameter), 26 millimetres (1 1 ⁄ 50 in) (thickness), and weighs 1.022 kg (2.25 lb). It is the largest copper coin ever issued.
9.
Ukrainian SSR
–
The Ukrainian SSR was a founding member of the United Nations, although it was legally represented by the All-Union state in its affairs with countries outside of the Soviet Union. From the start, the city of Kharkiv served as the republics capital. However, in 1934, the seat of government was moved to the city of Kyiv. Geographically, the Ukrainian SSR was situated in Eastern Europe to the north of the Black Sea, bordered by the Soviet republics of Moldavia, Byelorussia, the Ukrainian SSRs border with Czechoslovakia formed the Soviet Unions western-most border point. According to the Soviet Census of 1989 the republic had a population of 51,706,746 inhabitants, the name Ukraine, derived from the Slavic word kraj, meaning land or border. It was first used to part of the territory of Kievan Rus in the 12th century. The name has been used in a variety of ways since the twelfth century, after the abdication of the tsar and the start of the process of the destruction of the Russian Empire many people in Ukraine wished to establish a Ukrainian Republic. During a period of war from 1917-23 many factions claiming themselves governments of the newly born republic were formed, each with supporters. The two most prominent of them were the government in Kyiv and the government in Kharkiv, the former being the Ukrainian Peoples Republic and the latter the Ukrainian Soviet Republic. This government of the Soviet Ukrainian Republic was founded on 24–25 December 1917, in its publications it names itself either the Republic of Soviets of Workers, Soldiers, and Peasants Deputies or the Ukrainian Peoples Republic of Soviets. The last session of the government took place in the city of Taganrog, in July 1918 the former members of the government formed the Communist Party of Ukraine, the constituent assembly of which took place in Moscow. On 10 March 1919, according to the 3rd Congress of Soviets in Ukraine the name of the state was changed to the Ukrainian Socialist Soviet Republic. After the ratification of the 1936 Soviet Constitution, the names of all Soviet republics were changed, transposing the second, during its existence, the Ukrainian SSR was commonly referred to as Ukraine or the Ukraine. On 24 August 1991, the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic declared independence, since the adoption of the Constitution of Ukraine in June 1996, the country became known simply as Ukraine, which is the name used to this day. After the Russian Revolution of 1917, several factions sought to create an independent Ukrainian state, the most popular faction was initially the local Socialist Revolutionary Party that composed the local government together with Federalists and Mensheviks. The Bolsheviks boycotted any government initiatives most of the time, instigating several armed riots in order to establish the Soviet power without any intent for consensus, immediately after the October Revolution in Petrograd, Bolsheviks instigated the Kiev Bolshevik Uprising to support the Revolution and secure Kyiv. Due to a lack of support from the local population and anti-revolutionary Central Rada, however. Most moved to Kharkiv and received the support of the eastern Ukrainian cities, later, this move was regarded as a mistake by some of the Peoples Commissars
Ukrainian SSR
–
Territories claimed by the
Ukrainian People's Republic (1917–1920).
Ukrainian SSR
–
Flag
Ukrainian SSR
–
Soviet soldiers preparing rafts to cross the
Dnieper during the
Battle of the Dnieper (1943). The sign reads "To Kiev!".
Ukrainian SSR
–
"Eternally Together": a Soviet poster made for the 300th anniversary of the
Treaty of Pereyaslav in 1954.
10.
Soviet Union
–
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
Soviet Union
–
Vladimir Lenin addressing a crowd with Trotsky, 1920
Soviet Union
–
Flag
Soviet Union
–
Stalin and
Nikolai Yezhov, head of the
NKVD. After Yezhov was executed, he was
edited out of the image.
Soviet Union
11.
Soviet people
–
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
Soviet people
–
Pomerki child sanatory in
Kharkov. Summer 1950
12.
Communist Party of the Soviet Union
–
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
Communist Party of the Soviet Union
–
Khrushchev succeeded Stalin as the Soviet leader. His rule is best known for his liberalization of political and social life, and the end of terror as a means of social control
Communist Party of the Soviet Union
Communist Party of the Soviet Union
–
The Brezhnev era is commonly referred to by historians as the
Era of Stagnation, a term coined by CPSU General Secretary Gorbachev
Communist Party of the Soviet Union
–
Gorbachev, the last leader of the CPSU and the Soviet Union, as seen in 1986
13.
Mechanical engineer
–
Mechanical engineering is the discipline that applies the principles of engineering, physics, and materials science for the design, analysis, manufacturing, and maintenance of mechanical systems. It is the branch of engineering that involves the design, production and it is one of the oldest and broadest of the engineering disciplines. The mechanical engineering field requires an understanding of areas including mechanics, kinematics, thermodynamics, materials science, structural analysis. Mechanical engineering emerged as a field during the Industrial Revolution in Europe in the 18th century, however, Mechanical engineering science emerged in the 19th century as a result of developments in the field of physics. The field has evolved to incorporate advancements in technology, and mechanical engineers today are pursuing developments in such fields as composites, mechatronics. Mechanical engineers may work in the field of biomedical engineering, specifically with biomechanics, transport phenomena, biomechatronics, bionanotechnology. Mechanical engineering finds its application in the archives of various ancient, in ancient Greece, the works of Archimedes deeply influenced mechanics in the Western tradition and Heron of Alexandria created the first steam engine. In China, Zhang Heng improved a water clock and invented a seismometer, during the 7th to 15th century, the era called the Islamic Golden Age, there were remarkable contributions from Muslim inventors in the field of mechanical technology. Al-Jazari, who was one of them, wrote his famous Book of Knowledge of Ingenious Mechanical Devices in 1206 and he is also considered to be the inventor of such mechanical devices which now form the very basic of mechanisms, such as the crankshaft and camshaft. Newton was reluctant to publish his methods and laws for years, gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz is also credited with creating Calculus during the same time frame. On the European continent, Johann von Zimmermann founded the first factory for grinding machines in Chemnitz, education in mechanical engineering has historically been based on a strong foundation in mathematics and science. Degrees in mechanical engineering are offered at universities worldwide. In Spain, Portugal and most of South America, where neither B. Sc. nor B. Tech, programs have been adopted, the formal name for the degree is Mechanical Engineer, and the course work is based on five or six years of training. In Italy the course work is based on five years of education, and training, in Greece, the coursework is based on a five-year curriculum and the requirement of a Diploma Thesis, which upon completion a Diploma is awarded rather than a B. Sc. In Australia, mechanical engineering degrees are awarded as Bachelor of Engineering or similar nomenclature although there are a number of specialisations. The degree takes four years of study to achieve. To ensure quality in engineering degrees, Engineers Australia accredits engineering degrees awarded by Australian universities in accordance with the global Washington Accord, before the degree can be awarded, the student must complete at least 3 months of on the job work experience in an engineering firm. Similar systems are present in South Africa and are overseen by the Engineering Council of South Africa
Mechanical engineer
–
Mechanical engineers design and build
engines,
power plants, other machines...
Mechanical engineer
–
...
structures, and
vehicles of all sizes.
Mechanical engineer
–
An oblique view of a four-cylinder inline crankshaft with pistons
Mechanical engineer
–
Training FMS with learning robot
SCORBOT-ER 4u, workbench CNC Mill and CNC Lathe
14.
Civil servant
–
A civil servant or public servant is a person so employed in the public sector employed for a government department or agency. The extent of civil servants of a state as part of the service varies from country to country. In the United Kingdom, for instance, only Crown employees are referred to as civil servants whereas county or city employees are not, many consider the study of service to be a part of the field of public administration. Workers in non-departmental public bodies may also be classed as servants for the purpose of statistics and possibly for their terms. Collectively a states civil servants form its service or public service. An international civil servant or international staff member is an employee who is employed by an intergovernmental organization. These international civil servants do not resort under any national legislation but are governed by internal staff regulations, All disputes related to international civil service are brought before special tribunals created by these international organizations such as, for instance, the Administrative Tribunal of the ILO. Specific referral can be made to the International Civil Service Commission of the United Nations and its mandate is to regulate and coordinate the conditions of service of staff in the United Nations common system, while promoting and maintaining high standards in the international civil service. The origin of the modern civil service can be traced back to Imperial examination founded in Imperial China. The Imperial exam based on merit was designed to select the best administrative officials for the states bureaucracy and this system had a huge influence on both society and culture in Imperial China and was directly responsible for the creation of a class of scholar-bureaucrats irrespective of their family pedigree. In the areas of administration, especially the military, appointments were based solely on merit, after the fall of the Han Dynasty, the Chinese bureaucracy regressed into a semi-merit system known as the Nine-rank system. This system was reversed during the short-lived Sui Dynasty, which initiated a civil service bureaucracy recruited through written examinations, the first civil service examination system was established by Emperor Wen of Sui. The examination tested the candidates memorization of the Nine Classics of Confucianism and his ability to compose poetry using fixed and traditional forms, the system was finally abolished by the Qing government in 1905 as part of the New Policies reform package. The Chinese system was admired by European commentators from the 16th century onward. In the 18th century, in response to changes and the growth of the British Empire, the bureaucracy of institutions such as the Office of Works. Each had its own system, but in general, staff were appointed through patronage or outright purchase, by the 19th century, it became increasingly clear that these arrangements were falling short. The origins of the British civil service are better known, during the eighteenth century a number of Englishmen wrote in praise of the Chinese examination system, some of them going so far as to urge the adoption for England of something similar. The first concrete step in this direction was taken by the British East India Company in 1806, in that year, the Honourable East India Company established a college, the East India Company College, near London to train and examine administrators of the Companys territories in India
Civil servant
–
Imperial Civil Service Examination hall with 7500 cells in
Guangdong, 1873.
Civil servant
–
Emperor Wen of Sui (r. 581–604), who established the first
civil service examination system in China; a painting by the
chancellor and artist
Yan Liben (600–673).
Civil servant
–
Charles Trevelyan, an architect of
Her Majesty's Civil Service, established in 1855 on his recommendations.
15.
Russian language
–
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
Russian language
–
Russian language street sign in
Russia.
Russian language
–
Russian minimarket in
Limassol, Cyprus; translation: "Teremok market. Russian goods. Phone number: 96 74 19 63"
Russian language
–
This page from an "ABC" book printed in Moscow in 1694 shows the letter
П.
Russian language
–
The
Ostromir Gospels of 1056 is the second oldest
East Slavic book known, one of many medieval
illuminated manuscripts preserved in the
Russian National Library.
16.
Ukrainian language
–
Ukrainian /juːˈkreɪniən/ is an East Slavic language. Written Ukrainian uses a variant of the Cyrillic script, historical linguists trace the origin of the Ukrainian language to the Old East Slavic of the early medieval state of Kievan Rus. After the fall of the Kievan Rus as well as the Kingdom of Galicia–Volhynia, the Modern Ukrainian language has been in common use since the late 17th century, associated with the establishment of the Cossack Hetmanate. From 1804 until the Russian Revolution, the Ukrainian language was banned from schools in the Russian Empire and it has always maintained a sufficient base in Western Ukraine, where the language was never banned, in its folklore songs, itinerant musicians, and prominent authors. The Ukrainian language retains a degree of intelligibility with Belarusian and Russian. The first theory of the origin of Ukrainian language was suggested in Imperial Russia in the middle of the 18th century by Mikhail Lomonosov and this theory posits the existence of a common language spoken by all East Slavic people in the time of the Rus. Another point of view developed during the 19th and 20th centuries by linguists of Imperial Russia, like Lomonosov, they assumed the existence of a common language spoken by East Slavs in the past. This general point of view is the most accepted amongst academics worldwide, the supporters of this theory disagree, however, about the time when the different languages were formed. Soviet scholars set the divergence between Ukrainian and Russian only at time periods. During the time of the incorporation of Ruthenia into the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth and this point of view is, however, at variance with some historical data. In fact, several East Slavic tribes, such as Polans, Drevlyans, Severians, Dulebes, White Croats, Tiverians, notably, some Ukrainian features were recognizable in the southern dialects of Old East Slavic as far back as the language can be documented. In contrast, Ahatanhel Krymsky and Alexei Shakhmatov assumed the existence of the spoken language of Eastern Slavs only in prehistoric times. According to their point of view, the diversification of the Old East Slavic language took place in the 8th or early 9th century, Ukrainian linguist Stepan Smal-Stotsky went even further, denying the existence of a common Old East Slavic language at any time in the past. Similar points of view were shared by Yevhen Tymchenko, Vsevolod Hantsov, Olena Kurylo, Ivan Ohienko, according to this theory, the dialects of East Slavic tribes evolved gradually from the common Proto-Slavic language without any intermediate stages during the 6th through 9th centuries. The Ukrainian language was formed by convergence of tribal dialects, mostly due to a migration of the population within the territory of todays Ukraine in later historical periods. This point of view was supported by George Shevelovs phonological studies. During the 13th century, when German settlers were invited to Ukraine by the princes of Galicia-Vollhynia and their influence would continue under Poland not only through German colonists but also through the Yiddish-speaking Jews. Often such words involve trade or handicrafts, examples of words of German or Yiddish origin spoken in Ukraine include dakh, rura, rynok, kushnir, and majster
Ukrainian language
–
Miniature of
St Luke from the
Peresopnytsia Gospels (1561).
Ukrainian language
–
Ukrainian-speaking world
Ukrainian language
–
The 1921 Soviet recruitment poster. It uses traditional Ukrainian imagery with Ukrainian-language text: "Son! Enroll in the school of
Red commanders, and the defense of
Soviet Ukraine will be ensured."
Ukrainian language
–
Anti-russification protest. The banner reads "For Ukrainian Children – a Ukrainian school!".
17.
Cold War
–
The Cold War was a state of geopolitical tension after World War II between powers in the Eastern Bloc and powers in the Western Bloc. Historians do not fully agree on the dates, but a common timeframe is the period between 1947, the year the Truman Doctrine was announced, and 1991, the year the Soviet Union collapsed. The term cold is used there was no large-scale fighting directly between the two sides, although there were major regional wars, known as proxy wars, supported by the two sides. The Cold War split the temporary alliance against Nazi Germany, leaving the Soviet Union. The USSR was a Marxist–Leninist state ruled by its Communist Party and secret police, the Party controlled the press, the military, the economy and all organizations. In opposition stood the West, dominantly democratic and capitalist with a free press, a small neutral bloc arose with the Non-Aligned Movement, it sought good relations with both sides. The two superpowers never engaged directly in full-scale armed combat, but they were armed in preparation for a possible all-out nuclear world war. The first phase of the Cold War began in the first two years after the end of the Second World War in 1945, the Berlin Blockade was the first major crisis of the Cold War. With the victory of the communist side in the Chinese Civil War and the outbreak of the Korean War, the USSR and USA competed for influence in Latin America, and the decolonizing states of Africa and Asia. Meanwhile, the Hungarian Revolution of 1956 was stopped by the Soviets, the expansion and escalation sparked more crises, such as the Suez Crisis, the Berlin Crisis of 1961, and the Cuban Missile Crisis of 1962. The USSR crushed the 1968 Prague Spring liberalization program in Czechoslovakia, détente collapsed at the end of the decade with the beginning of the Soviet–Afghan War in 1979. The early 1980s were another period of elevated tension, with the Soviet downing of Korean Air Lines Flight 007, the United States increased diplomatic, military, and economic pressures on the Soviet Union, at a time when the communist state was already suffering from economic stagnation. In the mid-1980s, the new Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev introduced the reforms of perestroika and glasnost. Pressures for national independence grew stronger in Eastern Europe, especially Poland, Gorbachev meanwhile refused to use Soviet troops to bolster the faltering Warsaw Pact regimes as had occurred in the past. The result in 1989 was a wave of revolutions that peacefully overthrew all of the communist regimes of Central, the Communist Party of the Soviet Union itself lost control and was banned following an abortive coup attempt in August 1991. This in turn led to the dissolution of the USSR in December 1991. The United States remained as the only superpower. The Cold War and its events have left a significant legacy and it is often referred to in popular culture, especially in media featuring themes of espionage and the threat of nuclear warfare
Cold War
–
Photograph of the
Berlin Wall taken from the West side. The Wall was built in 1961 to prevent East Germans from fleeing and to stop an economically disastrous drain of workers. It was a symbol of the Cold War and its fall in 1989 marked the approaching end of the war.
Cold War
–
Allied troops in
Vladivostok, August 1918, during the
Allied intervention in the
Russian Civil War.
Cold War
–
The "
Big Three " at the Yalta Conference:
Winston Churchill,
Franklin D. Roosevelt and
Joseph Stalin, 1945.
18.
Working class
–
The working class are the people employed for wages, especially in manual-labour occupations and in skilled, industrial work. Working-class occupations include blue-collar jobs, some jobs, and most service-work jobs. As with many terms describing social class, working class is defined and used in different ways. The most general definition, used by Marxists and socialists, is that the class includes all those who have nothing to sell but their labor-power. When used non-academically in the United States, however, it refers to a section of society dependent on physical labor. For certain types of science, as well as scientific or journalistic political analysis, for example. Working-class occupations are then categorized into four groups, Unskilled laborers, artisans, outworkers, a common alternative, sometimes used in sociology, is to define class by income levels. The cut-off between working class and middle class here might mean the line where a population has discretionary income, some researchers have suggested that working-class status should be defined subjectively as self-identification with the working-class group. This subjective approach allows people, rather than researchers, to define their own social class, in feudal Europe, the working class as such did not exist in large numbers. Instead, most people were part of the class, a group made up of different professions, trades. A lawyer, craftsman and peasant were all considered to be part of the social unit. Similar hierarchies existed outside Europe in other pre-industrial societies, the social position of these laboring classes was viewed as ordained by natural law and common religious belief. This social position was contested, particularly by peasants, for example during the German Peasants War, wealthy members of these societies created ideologies which blamed many of the problems of working-class people on their morals and ethics. In The Making of the English Working Class, E. P, starting around 1917, a number of countries became ruled ostensibly in the interests of the working class. Since then, four major states have turned towards semi-market-based governance. Other states of this sort have either collapsed, or never achieved significant levels of industrialization or large working classes, since 1960, large-scale proletarianisation and enclosure of commons has occurred in the third world, generating new working classes. Additionally, countries such as India have been slowly undergoing social change, karl Marx defined the working class or proletariat as individuals who sell their labour power for wages and who do not own the means of production. He argued that they were responsible for creating the wealth of a society and he asserted that the working class physically build bridges, craft furniture, grow food, and nurse children, but do not own land, or factories
Working class
–
Working class life in
Victorian Wetherby,
West Yorkshire,
England.
Working class
–
Striking teamsters battling police on the streets of Minneapolis, June 1934.
Working class
–
Precursors
19.
All-Union Communist Party (bolsheviks)
–
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
All-Union Communist Party (bolsheviks)
–
Khrushchev succeeded Stalin as the Soviet leader. His rule is best known for his liberalization of political and social life, and the end of terror as a means of social control
All-Union Communist Party (bolsheviks)
–
The Brezhnev era is commonly referred to by historians as the
Era of Stagnation, a term coined by CPSU General Secretary Gorbachev
All-Union Communist Party (bolsheviks)
–
Gorbachev, the last leader of the CPSU and the Soviet Union, as seen in 1986
All-Union Communist Party (bolsheviks)
–
A Politburo resolution to execute 346 "enemies of the CPSU and Soviet Power" who led "counter-revolutionary, right-trotskyite, plotting and spying activities". Signed by Stalin
20.
Andrei Kirilenko (politician)
–
Andrei Pavlovich Kirilenko was a Soviet statesman from the start to the end of the Cold War. In 1906, Kirilenko was born at Alexeyevka in Belgorod Oblast to a Ukrainian working-class family and he graduated in the 1920s from a local vocational school, and again in the mid-to-late 1930s from the Rybinsk Aviation Technology Institute. He became a member of the All-Union Communist Party in 1930, after Nikita Khrushchevs forced resignation, Kirilenko became Leonid Brezhnevs chief lieutenant within the Central Committee. His main objective was to ensure Brezhnevs power base and, if possible and he was the first organisational secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union from Khrushchevs ouster to the death of Leonid Brezhnev. Kirilenko was responsible for selection and detailed supervision of the economic planning of the CPSU during most of the Brezhnev Era. In 1976, Brezhnev appointed Konstantin Chernenko to be his counterweight in the Central Committee and he became a member of the Political Bureau in 1965. He was forced to resign from politics due to health reasons. When Andropov became General Secretary in 1982, Kirilenko was pushed aside and he died on 12 May 1990 in Moscow. Andrei Kirilenko was born on 8 September 1906 in the village of Alexeyevka, Belgorod Oblast, in the Russian Empire, as a young boy, he worked as an electrician and a locksmith. In 1920, Kirilenko graduated from one of the schools, five years later. In the mid-to-late 1920s, Kirilenko started working for a mining enterprise located in the Voronezh Oblast and he became an active member of Komsomol in 1929 and, two years later, became a member of the All-Union Communist Party. In 1936, he graduated from the Rybinsk Aviation Technology Institute and he started working as a design engineer for the aircraft factory, Zaporizhia Engine Plant. In 1938, Kirilenko became a participant in party politics and was eventually selected to the position of Second Secretary of the Voroshilov District Party Committee in Zaporozhye Oblast. The following year, he was voted in as First Secretary, later that year he was appointed to Second Secretary of the Zaporizhzhya Regional Party Committee of the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic. In this role, Kirilenko made significant contributions to the development of metallurgical and electrical engineering, during the Great Patriotic War, Kirilenko was directly involved with evacuating industry to safe zones. From 1941 to 1943, he was a member of the Military Soviet of the 18th Army of the Southern Front and he contributed by improving discipline among soldiers as well as improving the materiel support for the troops. In 1943, Kirilenko was relocated to Moscow, and during his stay there the production of advanced aircraft increased rapidly, by the end of the war, in 1944, Kirilenko was made First Secretary of the Zaporizhzhya Regional Party. He succeeded Leonid Brezhnev, future Soviet leader, as First Secretary of the Dnepropetrovsk Regional Party Committee, Kirilenko was later promoted to Khrushchevs Vice-Chairman of the Bureau of the Central Committee
Andrei Kirilenko (politician)
–
Andrei Kirilenko Андрей Кириленко
21.
Communist Party (Bolsheviks) of Ukraine
–
The Communist Party of Ukraine, known as the Communist Party of Ukraine until 1952, was the Ukrainian branch of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union. The Communist Party of Ukraine was created in July 1918 in Moscow, after the signing of the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk the Bolshevik faction Social-Democracy of Ukraine was forced to dissolve as all Bolsheviks were forced out of Ukraine. On October 13,1952 the party officially was renamed as the Communist Party of Ukraine, on August 26,1991 the Communist Party was outlawed in Ukraine. Different sectors reconstituted themselves in different parties, the remaining members either changed political direction or created their own left-wing parties such as the Vitrenko bloc, Social-Democratic party, and others. Beside full members there also were candidate to the committee, the initial composition included Yan Hamarnik, Dmitriy Lebed, Mikhail Mayorov, Mykola Skrypnyk, Petro Slynko, Yakov Yakovlev. On September 9,1918 Mayorov and Slynko replaced Kertvelishvili and Farbman as full members, during World War II on October 2,1942 there was created the Illegal Central Committee of the Party consisting of 17 members. The committee was dissolved on June 29,1943, among the members of the committee were such personalities as Sydir Kovpak, Leonid Korniets, Oleksiy Fedorov, and others. The party had its own Politburo created on March 6,1919, on September 25,1952 the committee was renamed into the Bureau of the Central Committee of CPU, and in October the same year as the Bureau of the CC CPU. On October 10,1952 it became the Presidium of the CC CPU, on June 26,1966 again the bureau was finally left with its original name as the Politburo of the CC CPU. At first it consisted of five members and later one was added. The first Politburo included Andriy Bubnov, Emanuel Kviring, Volodymyr Mescheriakov, Heorhiy Pyatakov, Christian Rakovsky, from March 23 until April 15,1920 there was elected a Provisional Bureau which the next day was ratified by the Russian Communist Party. Along with Politburo the party like its Russian counterpart had its own Orgburo that was created the day as Politburo. The party was headed by its secretary, the position was highly influential and often was considered to be more important than the head of state. The following list is composed of the secretary of the Central Committee of the party who were the leaders of the Party, the position also was changing names between being called the First Secretary or the General Secretary, depending on a political atmosphere in the Soviet Union. The position was not officially of the head of state, but certainly was very influential, Mykola Oleksiiovych Skrypnyk There were 28 Congresses with the last one consisting out of two stages. There also were three consolidated conferences of the party from 1926 to 1932, at the second stage of the last Congress there were 273 members in the Central Committee. This took place in Moscow and decided to call for preparations for an uprising against the occupying Central Powers forces. There were only 15 members in the Central Committee and six candidates, promoted to members, Mikhail Mayorov and Pyotr Slinko This also took place in Moscow
Communist Party (Bolsheviks) of Ukraine
–
1922 - 1934
Communist Party (Bolsheviks) of Ukraine
–
1934 - 1938
Communist Party (Bolsheviks) of Ukraine
–
1938 - 1941
22.
Alexei Kosygin
–
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
Alexei Kosygin
–
Kosygin at the Glassboro Summit Conference, 23 June 1967
Alexei Kosygin
–
The
House on the Embankment was a building completed in 1931 to house the government elite; Kosygin lived there
Alexei Kosygin
Alexei Kosygin
–
Kosygin with US President
Lyndon B. Johnson at the 1967
Glassboro Summit Conference
23.
Russian Revolution (1917)
–
The Russian Revolution was a pair of revolutions in Russia in 1917, which dismantled the Tsarist autocracy and led to the eventual rise of the Soviet Union. The Russian Empire collapsed with the abdication of Emperor Nicholas II, in the second revolution that October, the Provisional Government was removed and replaced with a communist state. The February Revolution was a revolution focused around Petrograd, then capital of Russia, in the chaos, members of the Imperial parliament assumed control of the country, forming the Russian Provisional Government. The army leadership felt they did not have the means to suppress the revolution, the February Revolution took place in the context of heavy military setbacks during the First World War, which left much of the Russian Army in a state of mutiny. During this chaotic period there were frequent mutinies, protests and many strikes, when the Provisional Government chose to continue fighting the war with Germany, the Bolsheviks and other socialist factions campaigned for stopping the conflict. The Bolsheviks turned workers militias under their control into the Red Guards over which they exerted substantial control, the Bolsheviks appointed themselves as leaders of various government ministries and seized control of the countryside, establishing the Cheka to quash dissent. To end Russia’s participation in the First World War, the Bolshevik leaders signed the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk with Germany in March 1918, soon after, civil war erupted among the Reds, the Whites, the independence movements and the non-Bolshevik socialists. It continued for years, during which the Bolsheviks defeated both the Whites and all rival socialists. In this way, the Revolution paved the way for the creation of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics in 1922, the Russian Revolution of 1905 was said to be a major factor to the February Revolutions of 1917. The events of Bloody Sunday triggered a line of protests, a council of workers called the St. Petersburg Soviet was created in all this chaos, and the beginning of a communist political protest had begun. World War I prompted a Russian outcry directed at Tsar Nicholas II and it was another major factor contributing to the retaliation of the Russian Communists against their royal opponents. However, the problems were merely administrative, and not industrial as Germany was producing great amounts of munitions whilst constantly fighting on two major battlefronts, the war also developed a weariness in the city, owing to a lack of food in response to the disruption of agriculture. Food scarcity had become a problem in Russia, but the cause of this did not lie in any failure of the harvests. As a result, they tended to hoard their grain and to revert to subsistence farming, thus the cities were constantly short of food. At the same time rising prices led to demands for wages in the factories. The outcome of all this, however, was a criticism of the government rather than any war-weariness. The original fever of excitement, which had caused the name of St. Heavy losses during the war also strengthened thoughts that Tsar Nicholas II was unfit to rule, the Liberals were now better placed to voice their complaints, since they were participating more fully through a variety of voluntary organizations
Russian Revolution (1917)
–
Bolshevik forces marching on
Red Square
Russian Revolution (1917)
–
Soldiers blocking
Narva Gate on
Bloody Sunday
Russian Revolution (1917)
–
Russian soldiers marching in Petrograd in February 1917
Russian Revolution (1917)
–
The Petrograd Soviet Assembly meeting in 1917
24.
Komsomol
–
The All-Union Leninist Young Communist League, usually known as Komsomol, was a political youth organization in the Soviet Union. It is sometimes described as the division of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, although it was officially independent and referred to as the helper. The Komsomol in its earliest form was established in urban centers in 1918, during the early years, it was a Russian organization, known as the Russian Young Communist League, or RKSM. During 1922, with the unification of the USSR, it was reformed into an all-union agency and it was the final stage of three youth organizations with members up to age 28, graduated at 14 from the Young Pioneers, and at nine from the Little Octobrists. Before the February Revolution of 1917 the Bolsheviks did not display any interest in establishing or maintaining a youth division, after the Russian Civil War of 1917-1922 ended, the Soviet government under Lenin introduced a semi-capitalist economic policy to stabilize Russia’s floundering economy. This reform, the New Economic Policy, introduced a new policy of moderation and discipline. Lenin himself stressed the importance of education of young Soviet citizens in building a new society. The first Komsomol Congress met in 1918 under the patronage of the Bolshevik Party, Party intervention in 1922-1923 proved marginally successful in recruiting members by presenting the ideal Komsomolets as a foil to the bourgeois NEPman. However, the party was not very successful overall in recruiting Russian youth during the NEP period and this came about because of conflict and disillusionment among Soviet youth who romanticised the spontaneity and destruction characteristic of War Communism and the Civil War period. They saw it as their duty, and the duty of the Communist Party itself, however, the NEP had the opposite effect, after it started, many aspects of bourgeois social behavior began to reemerge. The contrast between the Good Communist extolled by the Party and the bourgeois capitalism fostered by NEP confused many young people, as a result, there was a major slump in interest and membership in the Party-oriented Komsomol. In March 1926, Komsomol membership reached a NEP-period peak of 1,750,000 members, only when Stalin came to power and abandoned the NEP in the first Five Year Plan did membership increase drastically. The youngest people eligible for Komsomol membership were fourteen years old, the upper age-limit for ordinary personnel was twenty-eight, but Komsomol functionaries could be older. Younger children joined the allied Vladimir Lenin All-Union Pioneer Organization, while membership was nominally voluntary, those who failed to join had no access to officially sponsored holidays and found it very difficult to pursue higher education. The Komsomol also served as a pool of labor and political activism. Active members received privileges and preferences in promotion, for example, Yuri Andropov, CPSU General Secretary in succession to Leonid Brezhnev, achieved political importance through work with the Komsomol organization of Karelia in 1940-1944. At its largest, during the 1970s, the Komsomol had tens of millions of members, the government, unions and the Komsomol jointly introduced Centers for Scientific and Technical Creativity for Youth. At the same time, many Komsomol managers joined and directed the Russian Regional, folklore quickly coined a motto, The Komsomol is a school of Capitalism, hinting at Vladimir Lenins Trade unions are a school of Communism
Komsomol
–
1933 Komsomol poster. Caption says "Prepare for worthy successors to the Leninist Komsomol"
Komsomol
–
All-Union Leninist Young Communist League Всесоюзный ленинский коммунистический союз молодёжи
Komsomol
–
Komsomol poster urging youth to become pilots.
Komsomol
–
Monument to Courage, Firmness and Faithfulness of Members of the Komsomol in
Sevastopol
25.
Vinnytsia
–
Vinnytsia is a city in west-central Ukraine, located on the banks of the Southern Bug. It is the center of Vinnytsia Oblast and the largest city in the historic region of Podillia. Administratively, it is incorporated as a town of oblast significance and it also serves as an administrative center of Vinnytsia Raion, one of the 27 districts of Vinnytsia Oblast, though it is not a part of the district. Population,372, 484 A historic city known since Middle Ages, the name of Vinnytsia appeared for the first time in 1363. It is assumed that the name is derived from the old Slavic word Vino and this name can be explained by the fact that the Vinnytsia and surrounding land were captured by Lithuanian Duke Algirdas in XIV century, and then, they were given as a gift to his nephews. Vinnytsia is located about 260 km southwest of the Ukrainian capital, Kyiv,429 km north-northwest of the Black Sea port city of Odessa and it is the administrative center of the Vinnytsia Oblast, as well as the administrative center of the surrounding Vinnytsia Raion within the oblast. The city itself is directly subordinated to the oblast, a long lasting warm summer with a sufficient quantity of moisture and a comparatively short winter is characteristic of Vinnytsia. The average temperature in January is −5.8 °C and 18.3 °C in July, the average annual precipitation is 638 mm. Over the course of a year there are around 6–9 days when snowstorms occur, 37–60 days when mists occur during the cold period, the original settlement was built and populated by Aleksander Hrehorovicz Jelec, hetman under Lithuanian Prince Švitrigaila. He built the fort, which he commanded as starosta afterwards, in the 15th century, Polish King Alexander Jagiellon granted Winnica Magdeburg city rights. In 1566, it part of the Bracław Voivodeship. Between 1569 and 1793 the town was a part of Poland and in this period, during period of Polish rule, Winnica was a Polish royal city. On March 18,1783, Antoni Protazy Potocki opened in Winnica the Trade Company Poland, after Second Partition of Poland in 1793 the Russian Empire annexed the city and the region. Russia moved to expunge the Roman Catholic religion – Catholic churches in the city were converted to Russian Orthodox churches, according to the Russian census of 1897, Vinnytsia with a population of 30,563 was the third largest city of Podolia after Kamianets-Podilskyi and Uman. It was occupied by German troops on 19 July 1941 during World War II, in 1943, the invading Germans exhumed almost 10,000 people, mostly male Ukrainians, from mass graves in Vinnytsia. The majority of the executions happened during the Stalinist Great Purge between 1937–1938 in the Vinnytsia massacre, adolf Hitler sited his easternmost headquarters Führerhauptquartier Werwolf near the town and spent a number of weeks there in 1942 and early 1943. Nazi atrocities were committed in and near Vinnytsia by Einsatzgruppe C, estimates of the number of victims run as high as 28,000. This included the extinction of the towns large Jewish population
Vinnytsia
–
Vinnytsia's old water tower (now the War Veterans' Museum)
Vinnytsia
–
Vinnytsia on a 1910s postcard
Vinnytsia
–
Mansion-museum of
Nikolay Pirogov.
Vinnytsia
–
Fountain Roshen is the only one in Ukraine and the largest floating fountain in Europe, built in the river
Southern Buh in Vinnytsia City near Festivalny Isle (Campa Isle)
26.
Khmelnytskyi Oblast
–
Khmelnytska oblast is an oblast of western Ukraine. The administrative center of the oblast is the city of Khmelnytskyi, the current estimated population is around 1,401,140. Khmelnytska oblast has an area of 20,600 km2 is located between 48°27 and 50°37 north latitude and between 26°09 and 27°56 east longitude. It is 220 km long measured from north to south. The oblast borders the Rivne Oblast to the northwest, the Zhytomyr Oblast to the northeast, the Vinnytsia Oblast to the east, the Chernivtsi Oblast to the south, the Podillia highland occupies the central area of the Khmelnytska oblast. The northwestern areas of the oblast are part of the Volyn highland, while to the north, the southwestern territory of the Khmelnytska oblast is crossed by the Tovtry range, which includes Mount Velyka Buhaikha, the highest point of oblast at 409 m above sea-level. The extreme south of the oblast has a surface with the river valleys. The Dneister Reservoir located there is the lowest point of the oblast, there are 120 rivers with a length of 10 km or more in the Khmelnytska oblast. The largest of these are the Dniester River, as well as its tributaries, Smotrych, Ushytsia, and the Zbruch — and the Southern Buh River, as well as its tributaries, Buzhok, Ikva, and Vovk. The rivers of the Dnieper Rivers basin — Horyn, Khmora, the oblasts lakes are located mostly in basin of the Horyn River. The largest reservoir in the oblast is the Dniester Reservoir, there are 1858 ponds and/or reservoirs in the oblast. The largest of these include Shchedrivske, Novostavske, and Kuzmynske, Khmelnytska oblast was created on September 22,1937 as the Kamianets-Podilskyi Oblast. In March 1941 the administrative center of the oblast was moved from Kamianets-Podilskyi to the city of Proskuriv, in 1954, Proskuriv was renamed Khmelnytskyi, and soon afterward, the oblast was renamed to Khmelnytska oblast. The oblast is subdivided into 20 raions and it consists of 6 municipalities,13 cities,24 towns, and more than 1,417 villages. The local administration of the oblast is controlled by the Khmelnytska oblast Rada, the governor of the oblast is the Khmelnytska oblast Rada speaker, appointed by the President of Ukraine. Khmelnytska oblasts population is 1,401,140 as of January 1,2004, as of 2002, the oblast ranks 13th by population in Ukraine. Pensioners make up 453,800 thousand people or 31, 7% of population, the birth rate per 1,000 residents is 8.3, and the death rate — per 1000 residents –16.1. The urban population, according to the 2001 Ukrainian Census data, accounted for 729,600 people, or 51%, and the rural population — for 701,200 people, or 49%
Khmelnytskyi Oblast
–
General view of the
Bernardine Monastery in
Iziaslav
Khmelnytskyi Oblast
Khmelnytskyi Oblast
–
The beginning of city's main street, Proskurivska street in Khmelnytskyi
Khmelnytskyi Oblast
–
The
Kamianets-Podilskyi Castle. The bastion on the right was guarding the bridgehead leading to the fortress. In the far right the "New Castle" is visible.
27.
Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic
–
The Ukrainian SSR was a founding member of the United Nations, although it was legally represented by the All-Union state in its affairs with countries outside of the Soviet Union. From the start, the city of Kharkiv served as the republics capital. However, in 1934, the seat of government was moved to the city of Kyiv. Geographically, the Ukrainian SSR was situated in Eastern Europe to the north of the Black Sea, bordered by the Soviet republics of Moldavia, Byelorussia, the Ukrainian SSRs border with Czechoslovakia formed the Soviet Unions western-most border point. According to the Soviet Census of 1989 the republic had a population of 51,706,746 inhabitants, the name Ukraine, derived from the Slavic word kraj, meaning land or border. It was first used to part of the territory of Kievan Rus in the 12th century. The name has been used in a variety of ways since the twelfth century, after the abdication of the tsar and the start of the process of the destruction of the Russian Empire many people in Ukraine wished to establish a Ukrainian Republic. During a period of war from 1917-23 many factions claiming themselves governments of the newly born republic were formed, each with supporters. The two most prominent of them were the government in Kyiv and the government in Kharkiv, the former being the Ukrainian Peoples Republic and the latter the Ukrainian Soviet Republic. This government of the Soviet Ukrainian Republic was founded on 24–25 December 1917, in its publications it names itself either the Republic of Soviets of Workers, Soldiers, and Peasants Deputies or the Ukrainian Peoples Republic of Soviets. The last session of the government took place in the city of Taganrog, in July 1918 the former members of the government formed the Communist Party of Ukraine, the constituent assembly of which took place in Moscow. On 10 March 1919, according to the 3rd Congress of Soviets in Ukraine the name of the state was changed to the Ukrainian Socialist Soviet Republic. After the ratification of the 1936 Soviet Constitution, the names of all Soviet republics were changed, transposing the second, during its existence, the Ukrainian SSR was commonly referred to as Ukraine or the Ukraine. On 24 August 1991, the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic declared independence, since the adoption of the Constitution of Ukraine in June 1996, the country became known simply as Ukraine, which is the name used to this day. After the Russian Revolution of 1917, several factions sought to create an independent Ukrainian state, the most popular faction was initially the local Socialist Revolutionary Party that composed the local government together with Federalists and Mensheviks. The Bolsheviks boycotted any government initiatives most of the time, instigating several armed riots in order to establish the Soviet power without any intent for consensus, immediately after the October Revolution in Petrograd, Bolsheviks instigated the Kiev Bolshevik Uprising to support the Revolution and secure Kyiv. Due to a lack of support from the local population and anti-revolutionary Central Rada, however. Most moved to Kharkiv and received the support of the eastern Ukrainian cities, later, this move was regarded as a mistake by some of the Peoples Commissars
Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic
–
Territories claimed by the
Ukrainian People's Republic (1917–1920).
Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic
–
Flag
Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic
–
Soviet soldiers preparing rafts to cross the
Dnieper during the
Battle of the Dnieper (1943). The sign reads "To Kiev!".
Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic
–
"Eternally Together": a Soviet poster made for the 300th anniversary of the
Treaty of Pereyaslav in 1954.
28.
Eastern Front (World War II)
–
The battles on the Eastern Front constituted the largest military confrontation in history. They were characterized by unprecedented ferocity, wholesale destruction, mass deportations, and immense loss of life due to combat, starvation, exposure, disease, and massacres. The Eastern Front, as the site of nearly all extermination camps, death marches, ghettos, of the estimated 70 million deaths attributed to World War II, over 30 million, many of them civilian, occurred on the Eastern Front. The Eastern Front was decisive in determining the outcome of the European portion of World War II and it resulted in the destruction of the Third Reich, the partition of Germany for nearly half a century and the rise of the Soviet Union as a military and industrial superpower. The two principal belligerent powers were Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union, along with their respective allies. Though never engaged in action in the Eastern Front, the United Kingdom. The joint German–Finnish operations across the northernmost Finnish–Soviet border and in the Murmansk region are considered part of the Eastern Front, in addition, the Soviet–Finnish Continuation War may also be considered the northern flank of the Eastern Front. Despite their ideological antipathy, both Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union shared a dislike for the outcome of World War I. The Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact signed in August 1939 was an agreement between Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union. It contained a secret protocol aiming to return Central Europe to the pre–World War I status quo by dividing it between Germany and the Soviet Union, Finland, Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania would return to Soviet control, while Poland and Romania would be divided. I need the Ukraine so that they cant starve us out, the two powers invaded and partitioned Poland in 1939. The annexations were never recognized by most Western states, the annexed Romanian territory was divided between the Ukrainian and Moldavian Soviet republics. Adolf Hitler had argued in his autobiography Mein Kampf for the necessity of Lebensraum, acquiring new territory for Germans in Eastern Europe, Wehrmacht officers told their troops to target people who were described as Jewish Bolshevik subhumans, the Mongol hordes, the Asiatic flood and the red beast. The vast majority of German soldiers viewed the war in Nazi terms, Hitler referred to the war in unique terms, calling it a war of annihilation which was both an ideological and racial war. In addition, the Nazis also sought to wipe out the large Jewish population of Central, after Germanys initial success at the Battle of Kiev in 1941, Hitler saw the Soviet Union as militarily weak and ripe for immediate conquest. On 3 October 1941, he announced, We have only to kick in the door, thus, Germany expected another short Blitzkrieg and made no serious preparations for prolonged warfare. Throughout the 1930s the Soviet Union underwent massive industrialization and economic growth under the leadership of Joseph Stalin, Stalins central tenet, Socialism in one country, manifested itself as a series of nationwide centralized Five-Year Plans from 1929 onwards. It served as a testing ground for both the Wehrmacht and the Red Army to experiment with equipment and tactics that they would later employ on a wider scale in the Second World War
Eastern Front (World War II)
–
German infantry in June 1943
Eastern Front (World War II)
–
Clockwise from top left: Soviet
Il-2 ground attack aircraft in Berlin sky; German
Tiger I tanks during the
Battle of Kursk; German
Stuka dive bombers on the Eastern Front, winter 1943–1944; Killings of Jews by German
Einsatzgruppen in Ukraine;
Wilhelm Keitel signing the
German Instrument of Surrender; Soviet troops in the
Battle of Stalingrad
Eastern Front (World War II)
–
Map of
South Western Front (Ukrainian) at 22 June 1941
Eastern Front (World War II)
–
The corpses of victims of Stalin's
NKVD murdered in the last few days of June 1941, just after the outbreak of war
_(1).jpg)
