1.
Soviet Union
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The Soviet Union, officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics was a socialist state in Eurasia that existed from 1922 to 1991. It was nominally a union of national republics, but its government. The Soviet Union had its roots in the October Revolution of 1917 and this established the Russian Socialist Federative Soviet Republic and started the Russian Civil War between the revolutionary Reds and the counter-revolutionary Whites. In 1922, the communists were victorious, forming the Soviet Union with the unification of the Russian, Transcaucasian, Ukrainian, following Lenins death in 1924, a collective leadership and a brief power struggle, Joseph Stalin came to power in the mid-1920s. Stalin suppressed all opposition to his rule, committed the state ideology to Marxism–Leninism. As a result, the country underwent a period of rapid industrialization and collectivization which laid the foundation for its victory in World War II and postwar dominance of Eastern Europe. Shortly before World War II, Stalin signed the Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact agreeing to non-aggression with Nazi Germany, in June 1941, the Germans invaded the Soviet Union, opening the largest and bloodiest theater of war in history. Soviet war casualties accounted for the highest proportion of the conflict in the effort of acquiring the upper hand over Axis forces at battles such as Stalingrad. Soviet forces eventually captured Berlin in 1945, the territory overtaken by the Red Army became satellite states of the Eastern Bloc. The Cold War emerged by 1947 as the Soviet bloc confronted the Western states that united in the North Atlantic Treaty Organization in 1949. Following Stalins death in 1953, a period of political and economic liberalization, known as de-Stalinization and Khrushchevs Thaw, the country developed rapidly, as millions of peasants were moved into industrialized cities. The USSR took a lead in the Space Race with Sputnik 1, the first ever satellite, and Vostok 1. In the 1970s, there was a brief détente of relations with the United States, the war drained economic resources and was matched by an escalation of American military aid to Mujahideen fighters. In the mid-1980s, the last Soviet leader, Mikhail Gorbachev, sought to reform and liberalize the economy through his policies of glasnost. The goal was to preserve the Communist Party while reversing the economic stagnation, the Cold War ended during his tenure, and in 1989 Soviet satellite countries in Eastern Europe overthrew their respective communist regimes. This led to the rise of strong nationalist and separatist movements inside the USSR as well, in August 1991, a coup détat was attempted by Communist Party hardliners. It failed, with Russian President Boris Yeltsin playing a role in facing down the coup. On 25 December 1991, Gorbachev resigned and the twelve constituent republics emerged from the dissolution of the Soviet Union as independent post-Soviet states
2.
Order of the October Revolution
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The Order of the October Revolution was instituted on October 31,1967, in time for the 50th anniversary of the October Revolution. It was conferred upon individuals or groups for services furthering communism or the state, or in enhancing the defenses of the Soviet Union, military and it is second highest Soviet order, after the Order of Lenin. Above it was a red flag bearing the words October Revolution in Russian, a Hammer and Sickle emblem was placed at the bottom. The badge was worn on the left chest with a red ribbon bearing five blue stripes at the centre, the Russian cruiser Aurora was itself awarded with the Order of the October Revolution, the only ship ever to have received the award. Military units and institutions receiving the award applied the name to their title upon its reception. Order of the October Revolution at the Directory of the orders, medals, Order of the October Revolution Reference Page
3.
Order of the Red Banner of Labour
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It is the labour counterpart of the military Order of the Red Banner. A few institutions and factories, being the pride of Soviet Union, the Order of the Red Banner of Labour began solely as an award of the Russian SFSR on December 28,1920. The all-Union equivalent was established by Decree of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet on September 7,1928, the Order of the Red Banner of Labour could be awarded multiple times to the same recipient for successive deeds and long time merit. The Order of the Red Banner of Labour was worn on the side of the chest. If worn in the presence of Orders or medals of the Russian Federation, the design of the Order of the Red Banner of Labour evolved over the years. Its original design, called type 1 was amended in 1936, the type 1 Order consisted of a 38 mm wide by 43 mm high silver badge in the shape of a cogwheel, at center, a disc bordered along its entire outer diameter by panicles of wheat. Protruding from under the half of the central disc, a red enamelled triangle pointing downwards. On the central disc in the background, an electric dam, at center, a gilded hammer and sickle, at the top. At the very bottom of the cogwheel, the relief inscription USSR on a stylised horizontal shield bisected by a smaller cogwheel meshing into the larger one, the Order was secured to clothing with a threaded screw and nut arrangement. The earlier nuts were 28 mm in diameter, later ones measured 32 mm, the type 2 Order also consisted of a silver badge in the shape of a cogwheel, it measured 38 mm wide by 44 mm high. On the lower circumference of the cogwheel, the relief inscription Proletarians of the World, below the cogwheel, a red enamelled relief five pointed star superimposed on a shield from which four short panicles of wheat protrude left and right. Along the outer circumference of the central wreath, white enamelled slots spaced equally on the cogwheel. The individuals listed below were recipients of the Order of the Red Banner of Labour, the first recipient of the Order of the Red Banner of Labour of the RSFSR was Nikita Menchukov for saving an important bridge from being destroyed by flowing ice. Order of the Red Banner of Labour of the USSR number 1 was presented to the Putilov Works in Leningrad, the first individual awardees were V. Fedetov, A. Shelagin and M. Kyatkovsky for the rescue of a polar expedition. Mikhail Gorbachev received the Order of the Red Banner of Labour for harvesting a crop on his familys collective farm in 1949 at age 17. He is one of the Orders youngest recipients
4.
Order of Suvorov
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The Order of Suvorov is a military decoration of the Russian Federation named in honor of Russian Field Marshal Count Alexander Suvorov. The Order of Suvorov was originally a Soviet award established on July 29,1942 by decision of the Presidium of Supreme Soviet of the USSR and it was created to reward senior army personnel for exceptional leadership in combat operations. The Order of Suvorov was divided three different classes, 1st class, 2nd class, and 3rd class. Georgi Zhukov became the first recipient of the Order of Suvorov 1st class on January 28,1943, the Order 1st class was awarded to army commanders for exceptional leadership of combat operations. The Order 2nd class was awarded to corps, division, the Order 3rd class was awarded to regimental commanders, their chiefs of staff, and battalion and company commanders for outstanding leadership leading to a combat victory. In November 2015 all recipient formations of the Ukrainian army were stripped of their Red Banner Order of Suvorov as part of an Armed Forces-wide removal of Soviet awards, the Order may be awarded posthumously. The Order of Suvorov is a 40mm wide gold plated cross pattée with silver rays protruding from the center outwards between the arms of the cross to form a square, the distance from the tip of the silver rays to the tip of the opposite rays is 35mm. The obverse center has a circular medallion bearing the gilded bust of Alexander Suvorov, in profile. Just below the bust of Suvorov, on the lower edge, crossed branches of oak. At the upper part of the medallion, following its circumference, the reverse is bare except for the award serial number. The Order is suspended by a ring through the suspension loop to a standard Russian pentagonal mount covered by a 24mm wide green silk moiré ribbon with a 5mm wide orange central stripe
5.
Russian language
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Russian is an East Slavic language and an official language in Russia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan and many minor or unrecognised territories. Russian belongs to the family of Indo-European languages and is one of the four living members of the East Slavic languages, written examples of Old East Slavonic are attested from the 10th century and beyond. It is the most geographically widespread language of Eurasia and the most widely spoken of the Slavic languages and it is also the largest native language in Europe, with 144 million native speakers in Russia, Ukraine and Belarus. Russian is the eighth most spoken language in the world by number of native speakers, the language is one of the six official languages of the United Nations. Russian is also the second most widespread language on the Internet after English, Russian distinguishes between consonant phonemes with palatal secondary articulation and those without, the so-called soft and hard sounds. This distinction is found between pairs of almost all consonants and is one of the most distinguishing features of the language, another important aspect is the reduction of unstressed vowels. Russian is a Slavic language of the Indo-European family and it is a lineal descendant of the language used in Kievan Rus. From the point of view of the language, its closest relatives are Ukrainian, Belarusian, and Rusyn. An East Slavic Old Novgorod dialect, although vanished during the 15th or 16th century, is considered to have played a significant role in the formation of modern Russian. In the 19th century, the language was often called Great Russian to distinguish it from Belarusian, then called White Russian and Ukrainian, however, the East Slavic forms have tended to be used exclusively in the various dialects that are experiencing a rapid decline. In some cases, both the East Slavic and the Church Slavonic forms are in use, with different meanings. For details, see Russian phonology and History of the Russian language and it is also regarded by the United States Intelligence Community as a hard target language, due to both its difficulty to master for English speakers and its critical role in American world policy. The standard form of Russian is generally regarded as the modern Russian literary language, mikhail Lomonosov first compiled a normalizing grammar book in 1755, in 1783 the Russian Academys first explanatory Russian dictionary appeared. By the mid-20th century, such dialects were forced out with the introduction of the education system that was established by the Soviet government. Despite the formalization of Standard Russian, some nonstandard dialectal features are observed in colloquial speech. Thus, the Russian language is the 6th largest in the world by number of speakers, after English, Mandarin, Hindi/Urdu, Spanish, Russian is one of the six official languages of the United Nations. Education in Russian is still a choice for both Russian as a second language and native speakers in Russia as well as many of the former Soviet republics. Russian is still seen as an important language for children to learn in most of the former Soviet republics, samuel P. Huntington wrote in the Clash of Civilizations, During the heyday of the Soviet Union, Russian was the lingua franca from Prague to Hanoi
6.
Military awards and decorations
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While the United States Government does not consider all its military awards and medals as being decorations, other countries tend to refer to all their military awards and medals as decorations. Civil decorations awarded to military personnel should not be considered military decorations, although some orders of chivalry have civil, decorations received by police and fire brigade personnel may sometimes be considered alongside military decorations, on which they may be modelled, although they are strictly not military awards. Decorations have been known since ancient times, the Egyptian Old Kingdom had the Order of the Golden Collar while the New Kingdom awarded the Order of the Golden fly. Celts and Romans wore a torc or received other military decorations such as the hasta pura, dayaks wore and still wear tattoos, etc. Necklaces and bracelets were given during the early Middle Ages, evolving into richly jewelled big necklaces, the medal was instituted by Gustav III on 28 May 1789, during his war against Russia. Whilst technically it is active, in reality it as inactive. The next oldest was the Austro-Hungarian Tapferkeits Medaille Honour Medal for Bravery 1789-1792 and this medal was instituted on 19 July 1789 by the Emperor Joseph II. Another of the oldest military decorations still in use is Polands War Order of Virtuti Militari and it was first awarded in 1792. Medals have been forged by many people to make the medal appear more valuable or to make one look like a decorated soldier. Medal forgeries can include, Adding bars, engraving a famous soldiers name on it or creating a new medal. Medal forgery is illegal in most countries and can be punishable by jail time, in most NATO militaries, only the service ribbons are normally worn on everyday occasions
7.
Russian Civil War
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The Russian Civil War was a multi-party war in the former Russian Empire immediately after the Russian Revolutions of 1917, as many factions vied to determine Russias political future. In addition, rival militant socialists and nonideological Green armies fought against both the Bolsheviks and the Whites, eight foreign nations intervened against the Red Army, notably the Allied Forces and the pro-German armies. The Red Army defeated the White Armed Forces of South Russia in Ukraine, the remains of the White forces commanded by Pyotr Nikolayevich Wrangel were beaten in Crimea and evacuated in late 1920. Lesser battles of the war continued on the periphery for two years, and minor skirmishes with the remnants of the White forces in the Far East continued well into 1923. Armed national resistance in Central Asia was not completely crushed until 1934, there were an estimated 7,000, 000–12,000,000 casualties during the war, mostly civilians. The Russian Civil War has been described by some as the greatest national catastrophe that Europe had yet seen, many pro-independence movements emerged after the break-up of the Russian Empire and fought in the war. Several parts of the former Russian Empire—Finland, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, the rest of the former Russian Empire was consolidated into the Soviet Union shortly afterwards. After the abdication of Tsar Nicholas II of Russia, the Russian Provisional Government was established during the February Revolution of 1917, Political commissars were appointed to each unit of the army to maintain morale and ensure loyalty. In June 1918, when it became apparent that an army composed solely of workers would be far too small. Former Tsarist officers were utilized as military specialists, sometimes their families were taken hostage in order to ensure their loyalty, at the start of the war three-quarters of the Red Army officer corps was composed of former Tsarist officers. By its end, 83% of all Red Army divisional and corps commanders were ex-Tsarist soldiers, a Ukrainian nationalist movement was active in Ukraine during the war. More significant was the emergence of an anarchist political and military movement known as the Revolutionary Insurrectionary Army of Ukraine or the Anarchist Black Army led by Nestor Makhno, some of the military forces were set up on the basis of clandestine officers organizations in the cities. The Czechoslovak Legions had been part of the Russian army and numbered around 30,000 troops by October 1917 and they had an agreement with the new Bolshevik government to be evacuated from the Eastern Front via the port of Vladivostok to France. The transport from the Eastern Front to Vladivostok slowed down in the chaos, under pressure from the Central Powers, Trotsky ordered the disarming and arrest of the legionaries, which created tensions with the Bolsheviks. The Western Allies armed and supported opponents of the Bolsheviks, hence, many of these countries expressed their support for the Whites, including the provision of troops and supplies. Winston Churchill declared that Bolshevism must be strangled in its cradle, the British and French had supported Russia during World War I on a massive scale with war materials. After the treaty, it looked like much of material would fall into the hands of the Germans. Under this pretext began allied intervention in the Russian Civil War with the United Kingdom, there were violent clashes with troops loyal to the Bolsheviks
8.
All-Russian Central Executive Committee
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The All-Russian Central Executive Committee, was the highest legislative, administrative, and revising body of the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic from 1917 until 1937. Although the All-Russian Congress of Soviets had supreme authority, in periods between its sessions its powers were passed to VTsIK, by the Russian Constitution VTsIK was obligated to convene the All-Russian Congress of Soviets not fewer than two times a year. Extraordinary Congresses could be called whether from the initiative of VTsIK or on the request of local Soviets, the VTsIK was elected by the full Congress, with no more than 200 individuals. It was completely responsible to the Congress, the functions of the Collegiate or the Presidium were not declared in the Constitution but presumably they were supposed to be purely supervisory or revisionary bodies. VTsIK gave a direction for the policies of the Workers-Peasant government. VTsIK convoked the All-Russian Congress of Soviets to which it presented the reports on its activity, general policy, members of VTsIK worked in the departments or executed special assignments of the All-Russian Central Executive Committee. Equally with the All-Russian Congress of Soviets VTsIK defined the State budget as well as budgets in different regions, All-Russian Central Executive Committee was first elected at the first All-Russian Congress of Soviets in Petrograd, June 3–24,1917. The first Central Executive Committee of the All-Russian Congress of Soviets was not a governing body and this changed at the Second All-Russian Congress of Soviets during the October Revolution. The Second All-Russian Congress of Soviets met in, and elected the second Central Executive Committee and this then became the executive body of the RSFSR. It was composed of 62 Bolsheviks 29 Social Revolutionaries 10 Mensheviks The first chairman of the CEC was Lev Kamenev and he only cast a vote if there was an even split in the committee. The full name at a one time was All-Russian Central Executive Committee of Workers, Peasants, Red Army, from the formation of the Soviet Union, it downgraded from first level to second level of governing body. Following the adoption of the 1936 Soviet Constitution, this organ was replaced with the Supreme Soviet of the Russian SFSR, Lev Kamenev Yakov Sverdlov Mikhail Vladimirsky Mikhail Kalinin On December 30,1922 the Soviet Union was formed. It comprised the Russian SFSR and other communist-controlled Soviet republics, both positions were mostly ceremonial, increasingly so in later years. Supreme Soviet Text of the Russian Constitution of 1918
9.
Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic
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The Republic comprised sixteen autonomous republics, five autonomous oblasts, ten autonomous okrugs, six krais, and forty oblasts. Russians formed the largest ethnic group, the capital of the Russian SFSR was Moscow and the other major urban centers included Leningrad, Novosibirsk, Yekaterinburg, Nizhny Novgorod and Samara. The Russian Soviet Republic was proclaimed on November 7,1917 as a sovereign state, the first Constitution was adopted in 1918. In 1922 the Russian SFSR signed the Treaty on the Creation of the USSR, the economy of Russia became heavily industrialized, accounting for about two-thirds of the electricity produced in the USSR. It was, by 1961, the third largest producer of petroleum due to new discoveries in the Volga-Urals region and Siberia, trailing only the United States and Saudi Arabia. In 1974, there were 475 institutes of education in the republic providing education in 47 languages to some 23,941,000 students. A network of territorially organized public-health services provided health care, the effects of market policies led to the failure of many enterprises and total instability by 1990. On June 12,1990, the Congress of Peoples Deputies adopted the Declaration of State Sovereignty, on June 12,1991, Boris Yeltsin was elected the first President. On December 8,1991, heads of Russia, Ukraine, the agreement declared dissolution of the USSR by its founder states and established the Commonwealth of Independent States. On December 12, the agreement was ratified by the Russian Parliament, therefore Russian SFSR denounced the Treaty on the Creation of the USSR and de facto declared Russias independence from the USSR. On December 25,1991, following the resignation of Mikhail Gorbachev as president of the Soviet Union, on December 26,1991, the USSR was self-dissolved by the Soviet of Nationalities, which by that time was the only functioning house of the Supreme Soviet. After dissolution of the USSR, Russia declared that it assumed the rights and obligations of the dissolved central Soviet government, the new Russian constitution, adopted on December 12,1993 after a constitutional crisis, abolished the Soviet system of government in its entirety. Initially, the state did not have a name and wasnt recognized by neighboring countries for five months. Meanwhile, anti-Bolsheviks coined the mocking label Sovdepia for the nascent state of the Soviets of Workers, on January 25,1918 the third meeting of the All-Russian Congress of Soviets renamed the unrecognized state the Soviet Russian Republic. The Treaty of Brest-Litovsk was signed on March 3,1918, on July 10,1918, the Russian Constitution of 1918 renamed the country the Russian Socialist Federative Soviet Republic. By 1918, during the Russian Civil War, several states within the former Russian Empire seceded, internationally, in 1920, the RSFSR was recognized as an independent state only by Estonia, Finland, Latvia and Lithuania in the Treaty of Tartu and by the short-lived Irish Republic. On December 30,1922, with the creation of the Soviet Union, the final Soviet name for the republic, the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic, was adopted in the Soviet Constitution of 1936. By that time, Soviet Russia had gained roughly the same borders of the old Tsardom of Russia before the Great Northern War of 1700
10.
Order of Lenin
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The Order of Lenin, named after the leader of the Russian October Revolution, was the highest decoration bestowed by the Soviet Union. Those who were awarded the titles Hero of the Soviet Union and it was also bestowed on cities, companies, factories, regions, military units and ships. Corporate entities, various institutions and military units who received the said Order applied the full name of the order into their official titles. The order was established by the Central Executive Committee on April 6,1930, the first design of the Order of Lenin was sculpted by Pyotr Tayozhny and Ivan Shadr based on sketches by Ivan Dubasov. It was made by Goznak of silver with some lightly gold-plated features and it was a round badge with a central disc featuring Vladimir Lenins profile surrounded by smokestacks, a tractor and a building, possibly a power plant. A thin red-enamelled border and a circle of wheat panicles surrounded the disc, at the top was a gold-plated hammer and sickle emblem, and at the bottom were the Russian initials for USSR in red enamel. Only about 800 of this design were minted, the second design was awarded from 1934 until 1936. This was a gold badge, featuring an silver plated disc bearing Lenins portrait. The disc is surrounded by two golden panicles of wheat, and a red flag with LENIN in Cyrillic script, a red star is placed on the left and the hammer and sickle emblem at the bottom, both in red enamel. The third design was awarded from 1936 till 1943, design was same as previous, but central disc was gray enamelled and Lenins portrait was separate piece made of platinum fixed by rivets. The fourth design was awarded from 1943 till 1991, design was same as previous, but was worn as a medal suspended from a ribbon. The badge was worn by screwback on the left chest without ribbon. Later it was worn as a suspended from a red ribbon with pairs of yellow stripes at the edges. The ribbon bar is of the same design, the portrait of Lenin was originally a riveted silver piece. For a time it was incorporated into a gold badge. The first Order of Lenin was awarded to the newspaper Komsomolskaya Pravda on 23 May 1930, also among the first ten recipients were five industrial companies, three pilots, and the Secretary to the Central Executive Committee Avel Enukidze. The first person to be awarded a second Order of Lenin was the pilot Valery Chkalov in 1936, another pilot, Vladimir Kokkinaki, became the first to receive a third Order in 1939. The first five recipients, a German and four Americans, received the award for helping in the reconstruction of Soviet industry
11.
Vasily Blyukher
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Vasily Konstantinovich Blyukher (also spelled Bliukher, Blücher, etc. was a Soviet military commander. Blyukher was born into a Russian peasant family called Gurov in village of Barschinka, in the 19th-century, a landlord gave the nickname Blyukher to the Gurov family in commemoration of the famous Prussian Marshal Gebhard Leberecht von Blücher. In 1916 he joined the Russian Social Democratic Labour Party and he took part in the Russian Revolution of 1917 in Samara. In late November 1917, he was sent into Chelyabinsk to suppress Alexander Dutovs revolt as Red Guard commissar, Blyukher joined the Red Army in 1918 and was soon a commander. During the Russian Civil War, he was one of the figures on the Bolshevik side. After the Civil War, he served as commander of the Far Eastern Republic in 1921-1922. From 1924 to 1927, Blyukher was a Soviet military adviser in China and he was responsible for the military planning of the Northern Expedition which began the Kuomintang unification of China. Among those he instructed in this period was Lin Biao, later a leading figure in the Chinese Peoples Liberation Army, Chiang allowed Blyukher to escape after his anti-communist purge. Based at Khabarovsk, Blyukher exercised a degree of autonomy in the Far East unusual for a Soviet military commander, with Japan steadily extending its grip on China and hostile to the Soviet Union, the Far East was an active military command. In the Russo-Chinese Chinese Eastern Railroad War of 1929-1930 he defeated the Chinese warlord forces in a quick campaign, for this outstanding achievement, he became the first Recipient of the Order of the Red Star in September 1930. In 1935 he was made a Marshal of the Soviet Union, the importance of the Far East Front gave Blyukher a certain degree of immunity from Stalins purge of Red Army command, which had begun in 1937 with the execution of Mikhail Tukhachevsky. In fact, Blyukher had been a member of the tribunal that convicted Tukhachevsky, in 1938 he was accused of inadequate armed forces leadership during the battle of Lake Khasan and dismissed from his post. On October 22 he was arrested, convicted of espionage for Japan, a contributory factor in Blyukhers downfall was the defection to Japan in June 1938 of the NKVD chief in the Far East, Genrikh Lyushkov, who feared arrest. In prison Blyukher refused to confess and was never formally tried and he was severely tortured in Lefortovo jail in Moscow, which according to one source led to his death on November 9,1938, though another says he was shot on Joseph Stalins orders. When people began to ask about his whereabouts they were told that he was fighting in China under a pseudonym and his death was officially confirmed in 1956 when he was posthumously rehabilitated. In 1939, Chiang inquired about Blyukhers whereabouts in a meeting with Stalin, Stalin replied that the General had been executed for helping a Japanese spy. He continues to be a figure in Russia, and a documentary film on his life. George, 3rd and 4th classes Medal of St. George
12.
Iona Yakir
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Iona Emmanuilovich Yakir was a Red Army commander and one of the worlds major military reformers between World War I and World War II. He was an early and major military victim of the Great Purge and he was rehabilitated in 1957 by Nikita Khrushchev. Yakir was born in Kishinev, Bessarabia, Russian Empire, into the family of a Jewish pharmacist. He graduated from the secondary school in 1914. Because of governmental restrictions on Jewish access to education, Yakir studied abroad at the University of Basel in Switzerland. During World War I, he returned to the Russian Empire and worked as a turner in a factory in Odessa. From 1915 to 1917, he attended the Kharkiv Technological Institute and he was affected by the war and became a follower of Vladimir Lenin. In 1917, he returned to Kishinev, and in April became a member of the Bolshevik Party and he also became a member of the Bessarabian Governorates Council, the Governorates Committee and the Revolutionary Committee. From January 1918, he took part in the Bolshevik seizure of power in Bessarabia. When Romania intervened to recapture Bessarabia, Yakir led Bolshevik resistance, Yakir retreated to Ukraine and fought against Austro-Hungarian occupation forces as a commander of a Chinese regiment of the Red Army. He was severely wounded in March 1918 near Ekaterinoslav and he showed military talent and was assigned as a field commander. He carried out Lenins order of persecution against the Cossack civilians, the war against armed combatants plus the terror against the civilians were coming together in the Russian Civil War. Encouraged by the Bolshevik theory of class struggle, Yakir, like members of the Communist party. For his services, he became the individual to receive the highest Soviet military award of that time. Both divisions were surrounded in Odessa by the White forces, Yakir undertook one of the most unusual Civil War military operations. He breached the encirclement and led his forces through the rear for a distance of 400 kilometres to join the Red Army in Zhitomir. For this campaign he received his second Order of the Red Banner, Yakir took part in actions against the White forces of Nikolai Yudenich in defense of Petrograd, in suppression of Ukrainian anarchist guerrilla forces of Nestor Makhno, and in the Polish-Soviet War. He was awarded the Order of the Red Banner three times, and he one of the most-decorated Red Army commanders
13.
Red Army
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The Workers and Peasants Red Army was the army and the air force of the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic, and after 1922 the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. The army was established immediately after the 1917 October Revolution, the Bolsheviks raised an army to oppose the military confederations of their adversaries during the Russian Civil War. The Red Army is credited as being the land force in the Allied victory in the European theatre of World War II. During operations on the Eastern Front, it fought 75%–80% of the German land forces deployed in the war, inflicting the vast majority of all German losses and ultimately capturing the German capital. In September 1917, Vladimir Lenin wrote, There is only one way to prevent the restoration of the police, at the time, the Imperial Russian Army had started to collapse. The Tsarist general Nikolay Dukhonin estimated that there had been 2 million deserters,1.8 million dead,5 million wounded and 2 million prisoners and he estimated the remaining troops as numbering 10 million. Therefore, the Council of Peoples Commissars decided to form the Red Army on 28 January 1918 and they envisioned a body formed from the class-conscious and best elements of the working classes. All citizens of the Russian republic aged 18 or older were eligible, in the event of an entire unit wanting to join the Red Army, a collective guarantee and the affirmative vote of all its members would be necessary. Because the Red Army was composed mainly of peasants, the families of those who served were guaranteed rations, some peasants who remained at home yearned to join the Army, men, along with some women, flooded the recruitment centres. If they were turned away they would collect scrap metal and prepare care-packages, in some cases the money they earned would go towards tanks for the Army. Nikolai Krylenko was the supreme commander-in-chief, with Aleksandr Myasnikyan as deputy, Nikolai Podvoisky became the commissar for war, Pavel Dybenko, commissar for the fleet. Proshyan, Samoisky, Steinberg were also specified as peoples commissars as well as Vladimir Bonch-Bruyevich from the Bureau of Commissars, at a joint meeting of Bolsheviks and Left Socialist-Revolutionaries, held on 22 February 1918, Krylenko remarked, We have no army. The Red Guard units are brushed aside like flies and we have no power to stay the enemy, only an immediate signing of the peace treaty will save us from destruction. This provoked the insurrection of General Alexey Maximovich Kaledins Volunteer Army in the River Don region, the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk aggravated Russian internal politics. The situation encouraged direct Allied intervention in the Russian Civil War, a series of engagements resulted, involving, amongst others, the Czechoslovak Legion, the Polish 5th Rifle Division, and the pro-Bolshevik Red Latvian Riflemen. The Whites defeated the Red Army on each front, Leon Trotsky reformed and counterattacked, the Red Army repelled Admiral Kolchaks army in June, and the armies of General Denikin and General Yudenich in October. By mid-November the White armies were all almost completely exhausted, in January 1920, Budennys First Cavalry Army entered Rostov-on-Don. 1919 to 1923 At the wars start, the Red Army consisted of 299 infantry regiments, Civil war intensified after Lenin dissolved the Russian Constituent Assembly and the Soviet government signed the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk, removing Russia from the Great War
14.
Soviet Air Forces
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The Soviet Air Forces was the official designation of one of the air forces of the Soviet Union. The other was the Soviet Air Defence Forces, the Air Forces were formed from components of the Imperial Russian Air Service in 1917, and faced their greatest test during World War II. The groups were involved in the Korean War, and dissolved along with the Soviet Union itself in 1991–92. Former Soviet Air Forces assets were divided into several air forces of former Soviet republics. March of the Pilots was its anthem, the All-Russia Collegium for Direction of the Air Forces of the Old Army was formed on 20 December 1917. This was a Bolshevik aerial headquarters initially led by Konstantin Akashev and it became the Directorate of the USSR Air Forces on 28 March 1924, and then the Directorate of the Workers-Peasants Red Army Air Forces on 1 January 1925. Gradually its influence on aircraft design became greater, from its earliest days, the force mimicked ground forces organization especially in the 1930s, by which time it was made up of air armies, aviation corps, aviation divisions, and aviation regiments. At first, the I-16 proved superior to any Luftwaffe fighters, however, the Soviets refused to supply the plane in adequate numbers, and their aerial victories were soon squandered because of their limited use. Later, Bf-109s delivered to Francos Spanish Nationalist air forces secured air superiority for the Nationalists, on 19 November 1939, VVS headquarters was again titled the Main Directorate of the Red Army Air Forces under the WPRA HQ. Between 1933 and 1938, the Soviet government planned and funded missions to break numerous world aviation records, not only did aviation records and achievements become demonstrations of the USSRs technological progress, they also served as legitimization of the socialist system. With each new success, Soviet press trumpeted victories for socialism, furthermore, Soviet media idolized record-breaking pilots, exalting them not only as role models for Soviet society, but also as symbols of progress towards the socialist-utopian future. The early 1930s saw a shift in focus away from collectivist propaganda. In the case of aviation, the government began glorifying people who utilized aviation technology instead of glorifying the technology itself. Pilots such as Valery Chkalov, Georgy Baydukov, Alexander Belyakov, in May 1937, Stalin charged pilots Chkalov, Baydukov, and Belyakov with the mission to navigate the first transpolar flight in history. On 20 June 1937, the aviators landed their ANT-25 in Vancouver, a month later, Stalin ordered the departure of a second crew to push the boundaries of modern aviation technology even further. The public reaction to the flights was euphoric. The media called the pilots Bolshevik knights of culture and progress, Soviet citizens celebrated Aviation Day on 18 August with as much zeal as they celebrated the October Revolution anniversary. Literature including poems, short stories, and novels emerged celebrating the feats of the aviator-celebrities, feature films like Victory, Tales of Heroic Aviators, and Valery Chkalov reinforced the positive hero imagery, celebrating the aviators individuality within the context of a socialist government
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Soviet Navy
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The Soviet Navy was the naval arm of the Soviet Armed Forces. The influence of the Soviet Navy played a role in the Cold War. The Soviet Navy was divided into four major fleets, the Northern, Pacific, Black Sea, the Caspian Flotilla was a smaller force operating in the land-locked Caspian Sea. Main components of the Soviet Navy included Soviet Naval Aviation, Naval Infantry, most of the Soviet Navy was reformed into the Russian Navy after the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991, while some elements became the basis of the Ukrainian, Azerbaijani and Georgian navies. During the revolution, sailors deserted their ships at will and generally neglected their duties, the officers were dispersed and most of the sailors left their ships. Work stopped in the shipyards, where uncompleted ships deteriorated rapidly, the Black Sea Fleet fared no better than the Baltic. The Bolshevik revolution entirely disrupted its personnel, with murders of officers. At the end of April 1918, German troops entered Crimea, the more effective ships were moved from Sevastopol to Novorossiysk where, after an ultimatum from Germany, they were scuttled by Vladimir Lenins order. The ships remaining in Sevastopol were captured by the Germans and then, after November 1918, on 1 April 1919, when Red Army forces captured Crimea, the British squadron had to withdraw, but before leaving they damaged all the remaining battleships and sank thirteen new submarines. When the White Army captured Crimea in 1919, it rescued and reconditioned a few units, at the end of the civil war, Wrangels fleet, a White fleet, moved to Bizerta in French Tunisia, where it was interned. The first ship of the navy could be considered the rebellious Imperial Russian cruiser Aurora. Sailors of the Baltic fleet supplied the fighting force of the Bolsheviks during the October Revolution, some imperial vessels continued to serve after the revolution, albeit with different names. The Soviet Navy, established as the Workers and Peasants Red Fleet by a 1918 decree of the Soviet government, was less than service-ready during the interwar years, as the countrys attentions were largely directed internally, the Navy did not have much funding or training. The greater part of the old fleet was sold by the Soviet government to Germany for scrap, in the Baltic Sea there remained only three much-neglected battleships, two cruisers, some ten destroyers, and a few submarines. Despite this state of affairs, the Baltic Fleet remained a significant naval formation, there also existed some thirty minor-waterways combat flotillas. During the 1930s, as the industrialization of the Soviet Union proceeded, approved by the Labour and Defence Council in 1926, the Naval Shipbuilding Program included plans to construct twelve submarines, the first six were to become known as the Dekabrist class. Beginning 4 November 1926, Technical Bureau Nº4, under the leadership of B. M, malinin, managed the submarine construction works at the Baltic Shipyard. In subsequent years,133 submarines were built to designs developed during Malinins management, additional developments included the formation of the Pacific Fleet in 1932 and the Northern Fleet in 1933
16.
Order (decoration)
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Modern national orders and orders of merit developed in the 19th century, emerging out of the culture of chivalric orders of the Middle Ages. The modern distinction between orders and decorations is somewhat vague, except that most historic chivalric orders imply a membership in a group, in a few exclusive European orders, membership is or was also limited in number. Orders often come in multiple classes, including knights and dames in imitation of the chivalric orders. They were essentially courtly in nature, characterised by close personal relations between the members and the orders sovereign. By the time of the Renaissance, most European monarchs had acquired an existing order of chivalry, or created new ones of their own, to reward loyal civilian. Such orders remained out of reach to the public, however. In the 18th century, these ideas gradually changed and the orders developed from honourable societies to visible honours, an example of this gradual development can be seen in two orders founded by Maria Theresa of Austria. Still today many dynastic orders are granted by royal families to worthy individuals for service, in 1802 Napoleon created the Légion dhonneur, which could be awarded to any person, regardless of status, for bravery in combat or for 20 years of distinguished service. While still retaining many trappings of an order of chivalry, it was the first modern order of merit and is still Frances highest award today. Curiously, orders of merit based on the French Legion of Honour typically retain five classes in accordance with habits of chivalric orders. In communist countries, orders of merit usually come in one to three grades, with only a badge worn with or without a ribbon on the chest, an example of a communist order of merit was the one-class Order of Lenin of the Soviet Union. Unlike Western orders, however, communist orders could be awarded more than once to an individual, after the collapse of the Soviet bloc, most Eastern European countries reverted to the Western-style orders originally established before the rise of communism. Today many countries have some form of order of merit or national decorations, both Thailands Order of the White Elephant and Japans Order of the Rising Sun are over 100 years old. In Canada and some Commonwealth Realms, the Order of Merit is the highest civilian honour, Canada has the Order of Canada and provincial orders such as the Order of Nova Scotia. Australia has the Order of Australia, and New Zealand awards the Order of New Zealand, the Order of Mapungubwe is the highest honour in South Africa, while the Orders of Luthuli, and the Baobab exist alongside other decorations. The United States awards the Medal of Honor to members of its military for acts of valour, and the Presidential Medal of Freedom, switzerland does not award any orders. Article 12 of the 1848 Swiss Constitution prohibited the acceptance of honours, the current Constitution of 1999 has no specific prohibition, but a federal statute effectively continues the prohibition by barring holders of foreign orders from holding public office. In 1974 the Cabinet of Sweden passed a regulation forbidding the Monarch of Sweden from awarding membership in orders to Swedish citizens
17.
World War II
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World War II, also known as the Second World War, was a global war that lasted from 1939 to 1945, although related conflicts began earlier. It involved the vast majority of the worlds countries—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing alliances, the Allies and the Axis. It was the most widespread war in history, and directly involved more than 100 million people from over 30 countries. Marked by mass deaths of civilians, including the Holocaust and the bombing of industrial and population centres. These made World War II the deadliest conflict in human history, from late 1939 to early 1941, in a series of campaigns and treaties, Germany conquered or controlled much of continental Europe, and formed the Axis alliance with Italy and Japan. Under the Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact of August 1939, Germany and the Soviet Union partitioned and annexed territories of their European neighbours, Poland, Finland, Romania and the Baltic states. In December 1941, Japan attacked the United States and European colonies in the Pacific Ocean, and quickly conquered much of the Western Pacific. The Axis advance halted in 1942 when Japan lost the critical Battle of Midway, near Hawaii, in 1944, the Western Allies invaded German-occupied France, while the Soviet Union regained all of its territorial losses and invaded Germany and its allies. During 1944 and 1945 the Japanese suffered major reverses in mainland Asia in South Central China and Burma, while the Allies crippled the Japanese Navy, thus ended the war in Asia, cementing the total victory of the Allies. World War II altered the political alignment and social structure of the world, the United Nations was established to foster international co-operation and prevent future conflicts. The victorious great powers—the United States, the Soviet Union, China, the United Kingdom, the Soviet Union and the United States emerged as rival superpowers, setting the stage for the Cold War, which lasted for the next 46 years. Meanwhile, the influence of European great powers waned, while the decolonisation of Asia, most countries whose industries had been damaged moved towards economic recovery. Political integration, especially in Europe, emerged as an effort to end pre-war enmities, the start of the war in Europe is generally held to be 1 September 1939, beginning with the German invasion of Poland, Britain and France declared war on Germany two days later. The dates for the beginning of war in the Pacific include the start of the Second Sino-Japanese War on 7 July 1937, or even the Japanese invasion of Manchuria on 19 September 1931. Others follow the British historian A. J. P. Taylor, who held that the Sino-Japanese War and war in Europe and its colonies occurred simultaneously and this article uses the conventional dating. Other starting dates sometimes used for World War II include the Italian invasion of Abyssinia on 3 October 1935. The British historian Antony Beevor views the beginning of World War II as the Battles of Khalkhin Gol fought between Japan and the forces of Mongolia and the Soviet Union from May to September 1939, the exact date of the wars end is also not universally agreed upon. It was generally accepted at the time that the war ended with the armistice of 14 August 1945, rather than the formal surrender of Japan
18.
Ensign
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Ensign is the national flag flown on a vessel to indicate nationality. The ensign is the largest flag, generally flown at the stern of the ship, the naval ensign, used on warships, may be different from the civil ensign or the yacht ensign. Large versions of naval ensigns called battle ensigns are used when a warship goes into battle, the ensign differs from the jack which is flown from a jackstaff at the bow of a vessel. In its widest sense, an ensign is just a flag or other standard, the European military rank of ensign, once responsible for bearing a units standard derives from it. In contrast, the Arab rank of ensign, liwa, derives from the command of a unit or units with an ensign, not the carrier of such a units ensign, and is a general officer. In Arab armies, ensign is a title equivalent to a Western brigade. In nautical use, the ensign is flown on a ship or boat to indicate its appartenance, while this includes its nationality, it may well indicate more information rather than being the national flag itself. This is particularly common for commonwealth and European countries, ensigns are usually at the stern flagstaff when in port, and may be shifted to a gaff or mast amidships when the ship is under way, becoming known as a steaming ensign. Vexillologists distinguish three varieties of a national flag used as an ensign, A civil ensign is worn by merchant. In some countries the yacht ensign, used on boats or ships instead of merchant vessels. A state ensign or government ensign is worn by government vessels, a naval ensign is used by a countrys navy. Such ensigns are strictly regulated and indicate if the vessel is a warship, a merchant ship, several Commonwealth countries national flags had their origin in the ensigns of their original colonising power, the United Kingdom. Most notable of these flags are those of Australia, New Zealand. It is also likely that the original design from which the flag of the United States developed was strongly influenced by the British Red Ensign or the flag of the East India Company. With the creation of independent air forces and the growth in aviation in the first half of the 20th century. These may be divided into air force ensigns and civil air ensigns, in heraldry, an ensign is the ornament or sign, such as the crown, coronet, or mitre, borne above the charge or arms. Distinguishing mark Maritime flag Znamierowski, Alfred, the world encyclopedia of flags, The definitive guide to international flags, banners, standards and ensigns
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Ministry of Internal Affairs (Russia)
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The Ministry of Internal Affairs of the Russian Federation is the interior ministry of Russia. Its predecessor was founded in 1802 by Alexander I in Imperial Russia, the Ministry is headquartered in Moscow. The current Minister of Internal Affairs is General of Police Vladimir Kolokoltsev, as the central government began to further partition the countryside, the ispravniks were distributed among the sections. Serving under them in their localities were commissaries. These uryadniks rapidly became the terror of the countryside and its most famous development was the so-called Third Section instituted by the emperor Nicholas I in 1826. This was entirely independent of the police, but was associated with the previously existing Special Corps of Gendarmes. By World War I, the Department had spawned a counter-intelligence section, after the February Revolution of 1917, the Gendarmes and the Okhrana were disbanded as anti-revolutionary. Having won the October Revolution, the Bolsheviks disbanded the tsarist police forces and formed an all-proletarian Workers, after the establishment of the USSR there was no Soviet NKVD until 1934. In March 1946, all of the Peoples Commissariats were redesignated as Ministries, the NKVD was renamed the MVD of the USSR, along with its former subordinate, the NKGB which became the MGB of the USSR. The NKVDs of Union Republics also became Ministries of Internal Affairs subordinate to MVD of the USSR, Secret police became a part of MVD after Lavrenty Beria merged the MGB into the MVD in March 1953. Within a year Berias downfall caused the MVD to be split up again, after that, in his efforts to fight bureaucracy and maintain Leninist principles, Nikita Khrushchev, as the Premier of the Union, called for the dismissal of the All-Union MVD. The Ministry ceased to exist in January 1960 and its functions were transferred to the respective Republican Ministries, the MVD of the Russian SFSR was renamed the Ministry for Securing the Public Order in 1962. The MVD regained its title in 1968. Another role of the reformed MVD was to combat economic crimes and this fight was never successful due to the pervasive nature of the black market. By the mid-1980s, the image of the militsiya was largely compromised by the corruption. Many high-ranking MVD officers, including the Minister himself, were revealed to be bribed by illegal shadow businesses. It currently controls the politsiya, the Main Directorate for Road Traffic Safety, since the disbanding of the Tax Police, it also investigates economic crimes. The last reorganization abolished Main Directorates inherited from the NKVD in favour of Departments, the current minister of internal affairs in Russia is Vladimir Kolokoltsev
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KGB
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The KGB, an initialism for Komitet gosudarstvennoy bezopasnosti, was the main security agency for the Soviet Union from 1954 until its break-up in 1991. Formed in 1954, as a successor of such preceding agencies as the Cheka, NKGB, and MGB. It was the government agency of union-republican jurisdiction, acting as internal security, intelligence. Similar agencies were constituted in each of the republics of the Soviet Union aside from Russia and consisted of ministries, state committees. The KGB was a service and was governed by army laws and regulations. While most of the KGB archives remain classified, two documentary sources are available. After the dissolution of the USSR, the KGB was split into the Federal Security Service, after breaking away from the Republic of Georgia in the early 1990s with Russian help, the self-proclaimed Republic of South Ossetia established its own KGB. A1983 Time magazine article reported that the KGB was the worlds most effective information-gathering organization, at best, the compromised spy was either returned to the Soviet Union or was declared persona non grata and expelled by the government of the target country. The illegal resident spied, unprotected by diplomatic immunity, and worked independently of Soviet diplomatic, in its early history, the KGB valued illegal spies more than legal spies, because illegal spies infiltrated their targets with greater ease. The KGB classified its spies as agents and controllers, the false-identity or legend assumed by a USSR-born illegal spy was elaborate, using the life of either a live double or a dead double. In the 1980s, the glasnost liberalisation of Soviet society provoked KGB Chairman Vladimir Kryuchkov to lead the August 1991 Soviet coup détat attempt to depose President Mikhail Gorbachev, the thwarted coup détat ended the KGB on 6 November 1991. The KGBs successors are the police agency FSB and the espionage agency SVR. The GRU recruited the ideological agent Julian Wadleigh, who became a State Department diplomat in 1936, the NKVDs first US operation was establishing the legal residency of Boris Bazarov and the illegal residency of Iskhak Akhmerov in 1934. Throughout, the Communist Party USA and its General Secretary Earl Browder, helped NKVD recruit Americans, working in government, business, moreover, when Whittaker Chambers, formerly Alger Hisss courier, approached the Roosevelt Government—to identify the Soviet spies Duggan, White, and others—he was ignored. To wit, British Manhattan Project team physicist Klaus Fuchs was the agent of the Rosenberg spy ring. In 1944, the New York City residency infiltrated the top secret Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico, by recruiting Theodore Hall, the KGB failed to rebuild most of its US illegal resident networks. The aftermath of the Second Red Scare and the crisis in the CPUSA hampered recruitment, the last major illegal resident, Rudolf Abel, was betrayed by his assistant, Reino Häyhänen, in 1957. One notable KGB success occurred in 1967, with the recruitment of US Navy Chief Warrant Officer John Anthony Walker
21.
Medal "For Impeccable Service"
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The Medal For Impeccable Service was established in three classes. The first class was awarded for twenty years of excellent service, the class for fifteen. The Medal For Impeccable Service was worn on the side of the chest. If worn in the presence of Orders or medals of the Russian Federation, the Medal For Impeccable Service was a 32-millimetre-diameter circular medal with a raised rim on both the obverse and reverse. On the obverse at center, the outline of a large five-pointed star with the hammer and sickle at its center. Along the circumference of the medal, passing between the rim and the points of the star, a laurel wreath. On the reverse of the Defence Ministry medal, the relief inscription along the upper medal circumference, ARMED FORCES, at the bottom. In the center, the inscription on four lines FOR YEARS OF IMPECCABLE SERVICE over a small five pointed star. On the reverse of the Interior Ministry medal, at the top, a small relief five-pointed star, at the bottom, in the center, the relief inscription on three lines FOR YEARS OF IMPECCABLE SERVICE. On the reverse of the Ministry for the Protection of Public Order medal, at the top, a small relief five-pointed star, at the bottom, in the center, the relief inscription on three lines FOR YEARS OF IMPECCABLE SERVICE. The first-class medal was struck from silver, after 1965 it was constructed of silver-plated brass. The central star on its obverse was enamelled in red, the second-class medal from its inception was also constructed from silver-plated brass, with the exception of the central star on its obverse. The third-class medal was struck from solid brass. The individuals below were all recipients of the Medal For Impeccable Service
22.
Hammer and sickle
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The hammer and sickle or sickle and hammer is a Communist symbol that was conceived during the Russian Revolution. At the time of creation, the hammer stood for industrial laborers, after World War I and the Russian Civil War, the hammer and sickle became more widely used as a symbol for peaceful labor within the Soviet Union and for international proletarian unity. It was taken up by many Communist movements around the world, farm and worker instruments and tools have long been used as symbols for proletarian struggle. A popular ancestor to the hammer and sickle was a hammer on a plough, in Ireland, the symbol of the plough remains in use. The Starry Plough banner was used by the Irish Citizen Army. James Connolly, co-founder of the Irish Citizen Army with Jack White, a sword is forged into the plough to symbolise the end of war with the establishment of a Socialist International. This was unveiled in 1914 and flown by the Irish Citizen Army during the 1916 Easter Rising, in 1917, Vladimir Lenin and Anatoly Lunacharsky held a competition to create a Soviet emblem. ” in six languages. It originally featured a sword, but Lenin strongly objected, disliking the violent connotations, the winning designer was Yevgeny Ivanovich Kamzolkin. On 6 July 1923 the 2nd session of the Central Executive Committee adopted this emblem, serp i Molot is the name of the Moscow Metallurgical Plant. Serp i Molot is also the name of a stop on the railway line from Kurski railway station in Moscow to Gorky, featured in Venedikt Yerofeyevs novel. In the Soviet Union the hammer and sickle came to take on a meaning, with the sickle coming to be associated with women. In addition, the Russian city of Oryol also uses the hammer, the former Soviet national airline, Aeroflot, continues to use the hammer and sickle in its symbol. The flag can also appear without the hammer and sickle in some circumstances, all of these use the yellow-on-red colour scheme. In Laos and Vietnam, the hammer and sickle flags party flags can often be seen flying side-by-side with their national flags. The Communist Party of Sweden, the Portuguese Communist Party and the Mexican Communist Party use the hammer, the hammer and sickle accompanied by the yellow star is used by the Communist Refoundation Party, the main Communist party in Italy. Many symbols having similar structures and messages to the original have been designed, for example, the Angolan flag shows a segment of a cog, crossed by a machete and crowned with a socialist star, while the flag of Mozambique features an AK-47 crossed by a hoe. In the logo of the Communist Party USA, a circle is formed by a half cog, a hammer is laid directly over the sickles handle with the hammers head at the logos center. The logo of the Communist Party of Turkey consists of half a cog wheel crossed by a hammer, movement, the pickaxe and rifle used in communist Albania, and the hammer and compasses of the emblem of the East German flag
23.
Wheat
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Wheat is a cereal grain, originally from the Levant region but now cultivated worldwide. In 2016, world production of wheat was 749 million tonnes, making it the second most-produced cereal after maize, since 1960, world production of wheat and other grain crops has tripled and is expected to grow further through the middle of the 21st Century. This grain is grown on land area than any other commercial food. World trade in wheat is greater than for all other crops combined, globally, wheat is the leading source of vegetal protein in human food, having a protein content of about 13%, which is relatively high compared to other major cereals and staple foods. The archaeological record suggests that wheat was first cultivated in the regions of the Fertile Crescent around 9600 BCE. In a small part of the population, gluten – the major part of wheat protein – can trigger coeliac disease, non-coeliac gluten sensitivity, gluten ataxia. Cultivation and repeated harvesting and sowing of the grains of wild grasses led to the creation of domestic strains, in domesticated wheat, grains are larger, and the seeds remain attached to the ear by a toughened rachis during harvesting. In wild strains, a more fragile rachis allows the ear to easily shatter, as the traits that improve wheat as a food source also involve the loss of the plants natural seed dispersal mechanisms, highly domesticated strains of wheat cannot survive in the wild. Cultivation of wheat began to spread beyond the Fertile Crescent after about 8000 BCE, jared Diamond traces the spread of cultivated emmer wheat starting in the Fertile Crescent sometime before 8800 BCE. Archaeological analysis of wild emmer indicates that it was first cultivated in the southern Levant with finds dating back as far as 9600 BCE, Genetic analysis of wild einkorn wheat suggests that it was first grown in the Karacadag Mountains in southeastern Turkey. Dated archeological remains of wheat in settlement sites near this region, including those at Abu Hureyra in Syria. With the anomalous exception of two grains from Iraq ed-Dubb, the earliest carbon-14 date for einkorn wheat remains at Abu Hureyra is 7800 to 7500 years BCE. Remains of harvested emmer from several sites near the Karacadag Range have been dated to between 8600 and 8400 BCE, that is, in the Neolithic period and these remains were dated by Willem van Zeist and his assistant Johanna Bakker-Heeres to 8800 BCE. They also concluded that the settlers of Tell Aswad did not develop this form of emmer themselves, the cultivation of emmer reached Greece, Cyprus and India by 6500 BCE, Egypt shortly after 6000 BCE, and Germany and Spain by 5000 BCE. The early Egyptians were developers of bread and the use of the oven, by 3000 BCE, wheat had reached the British Isles and Scandinavia. A millennium later it reached China, the oldest evidence for hexaploid wheat has been confirmed through DNA analysis of wheat seeds, dating to around 6400-6200 BCE, recovered from Çatalhöyük. The first identifiable bread wheat with sufficient gluten for yeasted breads has been identified using DNA analysis in samples from a dating to approximately 1350 BCE at Assiros in Macedonia. From Asia, wheat continued to spread throughout Europe, in the British Isles, wheat straw was used for roofing in the Bronze Age, and was in common use until the late 19th century
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Red star
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A red star, five-pointed and filled, is an important symbol often associated with communist ideology, particularly in combination with hammer and sickle. It has been used in flags, state emblems, monuments, ornaments. The five-pointed red star has served since about 1917 as a symbol of communism. One interpretation sees the five points as representing the five fingers of the workers hand, a red star became one of the emblems, symbols and signals representing the Soviet Union under the rule of the Communist Party, along with, for example, the hammer and sickle. In Soviet heraldry, the red star symbolized the Red Army and the service, as opposed to the hammer and sickle. It is most often thought that Russian troops fleeing from the Austrian and German fronts found themselves in Moscow in 1917, to distinguish the Moscow troops from the influx of retreating front-liners, officers gave out tin stars to the Moscow garrison soldiers to wear on their hats. When those troops joined the Red Army and the Bolsheviks they painted their tin stars red, another claimed origin for the red star relates to an alleged encounter between Leon Trotsky and Nikolai Krylenko. Krylenko, an Esperantist, wore a lapel badge, Trotsky enquired as to its meaning. On hearing that, Trotsky specified that soldiers of the Red Army should wear a similar, red and it has also been suggested that the use of the red star might be related to the popular novel called Red star from 1908 by Alexander Bogdanov. Following its adoption as an emblem of the Soviet Union, the red star became a symbol for communism in a larger sense, the symbol became one of the most prominent of the Soviet Union, adorning all official buildings, awards and insignia. Sometimes the hammer and sickle appeared depicted inside or below the star, separatist and socialist movements also sometimes adopted the red star, as on the Estelada flag in the Catalan countries. Titos partisans, often including people with different political views, or even with a religious background, wore the red star as an identification symbol. As the use of the red star spread to communism in East Asia, it was adapted, while some states kept the star as it was, some used a star, particularly on a red field. The Far Eastern Republic of 1920 to 1922 used a star on its military uniforms. The flag of Vietnam also has a star on a red field. In Brazil, however, the red star remained as it was, the Soviet and Russian Federation military newspaper is called the Red Star. Some sports teams from non-communist countries used it, such as French Red Star from Paris, Swiss club FC Red Star Zürich, English Seaham Red Star F. C. the Brazilian leftist Workers Party uses a red star as its symbol with the party acronym inside. Hugo Chávez and his supporters in Venezuela have used the red star in numerous symbols and logos and it was also used throughout 2007 as a symbol of the 5 Engines of the Bolivarian Socialist Revolution
25.
Plough
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A plough or plow is a tool or farm implement used in farming for initial cultivation of soil in preparation for sowing seed or planting to loosen or turn the soil. Ploughs were traditionally drawn by working animals such as horses or cattle, a plough may be made of wood, iron, or steel frame with an attached blade or stick used to cut the earth. It has been an instrument for most of recorded history. The plough represents one of the major agricultural inventions in human history, as the plough is drawn through the soil it creates long trenches of fertile soil called furrows. In modern use, a field is typically left to dry out. Ploughing and cultivating a soil homogenises and modifies the upper 12 to 25 cm of the soil to form a plough layer, in many soils, the majority of fine plant feeder roots can be found in the topsoil or plough layer. Ploughs were initially human-powered, but the process became more efficient once animals were pressed into service. The first animal-powered ploughs were undoubtedly pulled by oxen, and later in areas by horses and mules. In industrialised countries, the first mechanical means of pulling a plough were steam-powered, modern competitions take place for ploughing enthusiasts like the National Ploughing Championships in Ireland. By not ploughing, beneficial fungi and microbial life can develop that will bring air into the soil, retain water. A healthy soil full of active fungi and microbial life, combined with a crop, suppresses weeds and pests naturally. Thus the intensive use of water-, oil- and energy hungry irrigation, fertilisers, cultivated land becomes more fertile and productive over time, while tilled land tends to go down in productivity over time due to erosion and the removal of nutrients with every harvest. Proponents of permaculture claim that it is the way of farming that can be maintained when fossil fuel runs out. The term plough or plow, as used today, was not common until 1700, the modern word plough comes from Old Norse plógr, and therefore Germanic, but it appears relatively late, and is thought to be a loanword from one of the north Italic languages. Words with the same root appeared with related meanings, in Raetic plaumorati wheeled heavy plough, and in Latin plaustrum farm cart, plōstrum, plōstellum cart, and plōxenum, plōximum cart box. The word must have referred to the wheeled heavy plough. Orel tentatively attaches plough to a PIE stem *blōkó-, which gave Armenian peɫem to dig and Welsh bwlch crack, on modern ploughs and some older ploughs, the mouldboard is separate from the share and runner, so these parts can be replaced without replacing the mouldboard. Abrasion eventually destroys all parts of a plough that come into contact with the soil, digging sticks, hoes, and mattocks were not invented in any one place, and hoe-cultivation must have been common everywhere agriculture was practiced
26.
Red flag (politics)
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In politics, a red flag is a symbol of socialism, communism, and left-wing politics, it has been associated with left-wing politics since the French Revolution. Socialists adopted the symbol during the Revolutions of 1848 and it became a symbol of communism as a result of its use by the Paris Commune of 1871. The flags of several communist states, including China, Vietnam, the Labour Party in Britain used it until the late 1980s. It was the inspiration for the socialist anthem, The Red Flag, in the Middle Ages, ships in combat flew a long red streamer, called the Baucans, to signify a fight to the death. In one petition, a group of English sailors asserted that the Crown had no right to a share of the money earned from a Norman ship captured in 1293 because it had raised the Baucans. By the 17th century, the Baucans had evolved into a red flag and it was raised in cities and castles under siege to indicate that they would not surrender. The red flag is a signal of defiance and battle, according to Chambers Cyclopedia, the red cap was a symbol of popular revolt in France going back to the Jacquerie of 1358. The color red become associated with early in the French Revolution due to the popularity of the Tricolour cockade, introduced in July 1789. A red flag was raised over the Champ-de-Mars in Paris on July 17,1791 by Lafayette, commander of the National Guard, as a symbol of martial law, as many as fifty anti-royalist protesters were killed in the fighting that followed. Inverting the original symbolism, the Jacobins protested this action by flying a red flag to honor the martyrs blood of those who had been killed and they created their own red flags to declare the martial law of the people against the revolt of the court. The Jacobin Club ruled France during the Reign of Terror and made the red flag an unofficial national emblem, however, the earlier Tricolor never lost its official status and regained popularity under Napoleon. British sailors mutinied near the mouth of the River Thames in 1797, two red flags soaked in calfs blood were flown by marchers in South Wales during the Merthyr Rising of 1831. It is claimed to be the first time that the red flag was waved as a banner of workers power, along with the Newport Rising eight years later, it was one of the most serious violent outbreaks witnessed on mainland Britain. The red flags of Merthyr became a potent relic following the execution of early trade unionist Dic Penderyn in August 1831, during the Mexican siege of the Alamo in March 1836, General Antonio Lopez de Santa Ana displayed a plain red flag from the highest church tower in Bejar. The meaning of flag was not socialism, its meaning - directed to the Alamo defenders - meant no surrender. At much the same time, the Liberal Colorados in the Uruguayan Civil War used red flags, during the 1848 Revolution in France, Socialists and radical republicans demanded that the red flag be adopted as Frances national flag. The banner of the Paris Commune of 1871 was red and it was at time that the red flag became a symbol of communism. The flag was flown by anarchists at a May Day rally for a workday in Chicago in 1886
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Obverse and reverse
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In this usage, obverse means the front face of the object and reverse means the back face. The obverse of a coin is commonly called heads, because it depicts the head of a prominent person. In fields of scholarship outside numismatics, the front is more commonly used than obverse. For prints and drawings with material on both sides the one judged as more significant will be the recto, a convention now exists typically to display the obverse to the left and the reverse to the right in photographs and museum displays, but this is not invariably observed. Following this principle, in the most famous of ancient Greek coins, the tetradrachm of Athens, the obverse is the head of Athena, similar versions of these two images, both symbols of the state, were used on the Athenian coins for more than two centuries. The opposite side may have varied from time to time and this change happened in the coinage of Alexander the Great, which continued to be minted long after his death. The various Hellenistic rulers who were his successors followed his tradition and this script alone style then was used on nearly all Islamic coinage until the modern period. The type of Justinian II was revived after the end of Iconoclasm, without images, therefore, it is not always easy to tell which side will be regarded as the obverse without some knowledge. After 695, Islamic coins avoided all images of persons and usually, the side expressing the Six Kalimas is usually defined as the obverse. The form of currency follows its function, which is to serve as an accepted medium of exchange of value. Traditionally, most states have been monarchies where the person of the monarch, if not provided for on the obverse, the reverse side usually contains information relating to a coins role as medium of exchange. Additional space typically reflects the countrys culture or government, or evokes some aspect of the states territory. Regarding the euro, some regarding the obverse and reverse of the euro coins exists. This rule does not apply to the coins as they dont have a common side. A number of the used for obverse national sides of euro coins were taken from the reverse of the old pre-euro coins of some individual countries. Several countries continue to use portraits of the monarch and the Republic of Ireland continues to use the State Arms. The Chrysanthemum Crest was no longer used after the war, and so, the side on which the date continues to be regarded as the reverse. Following ancient tradition, the obverse of coins of the United Kingdom almost always feature the head of the monarch
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Russia
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Russia, also officially the Russian Federation, is a country in Eurasia. The European western part of the country is more populated and urbanised than the eastern. Russias capital Moscow is one of the largest cities in the world, other urban centers include Saint Petersburg, Novosibirsk, Yekaterinburg, Nizhny Novgorod. Extending across the entirety of Northern Asia and much of Eastern Europe, Russia spans eleven time zones and incorporates a range of environments. It shares maritime borders with Japan by the Sea of Okhotsk, the East Slavs emerged as a recognizable group in Europe between the 3rd and 8th centuries AD. Founded and ruled by a Varangian warrior elite and their descendants, in 988 it adopted Orthodox Christianity from the Byzantine Empire, beginning the synthesis of Byzantine and Slavic cultures that defined Russian culture for the next millennium. Rus ultimately disintegrated into a number of states, most of the Rus lands were overrun by the Mongol invasion. The Soviet Union played a role in the Allied victory in World War II. The Soviet era saw some of the most significant technological achievements of the 20th century, including the worlds first human-made satellite and the launching of the first humans in space. By the end of 1990, the Soviet Union had the second largest economy, largest standing military in the world. It is governed as a federal semi-presidential republic, the Russian economy ranks as the twelfth largest by nominal GDP and sixth largest by purchasing power parity in 2015. Russias extensive mineral and energy resources are the largest such reserves in the world, making it one of the producers of oil. The country is one of the five recognized nuclear weapons states and possesses the largest stockpile of weapons of mass destruction, Russia is a great power as well as a regional power and has been characterised as a potential superpower. The name Russia is derived from Rus, a state populated mostly by the East Slavs. However, this name became more prominent in the later history, and the country typically was called by its inhabitants Русская Земля. In order to distinguish this state from other states derived from it, it is denoted as Kievan Rus by modern historiography, an old Latin version of the name Rus was Ruthenia, mostly applied to the western and southern regions of Rus that were adjacent to Catholic Europe. The current name of the country, Россия, comes from the Byzantine Greek designation of the Kievan Rus, the standard way to refer to citizens of Russia is Russians in English and rossiyane in Russian. There are two Russian words which are translated into English as Russians
29.
Kliment Voroshilov
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Kliment Yefremovich Voroshilov, popularly known as Klim Voroshilov, was a prominent Soviet military officer and politician during the Stalin era. Voroshilov was born in the settlement of Verkhnye, Bakhmut district, Yekaterinoslav Governorate, in the Russian Empire, however, according to the Soviet Major General Pyotr Grigorenko, Voroshilov himself alluded to his Ukrainian heritage and to the previous family name of Voroshilo. Voroshilov joined the Bolshevik faction of the Russian Social Democratic Labour Party in 1905, following the Russian Revolution of 1917, Voroshilov became a member of the Ukrainian Council of Peoples Commissars and Commissar for Internal Affairs along with Vasiliy Averin. He was well known for aiding Joseph Stalin in the Military Council, Voroshilov was active as a commander of the Southern Front during the Russian Civil War and the Polish–Soviet War while with the 1st Cavalry Army. As Political Commissar serving co-equally with Stalin, Voroshilov was responsible for the morale of the 1st Cavalry Army, Voroshilovs efforts as Commissar did not prevent a resounding Polish victory at the Battle of Komarów or regular outbreaks of murderous anti-Semitic violence within the Cavalry armys ranks. Voroshilov headed the Petrograd Police during 1917 and 1918, Voroshilov served as a member of the Central Committee from his election in 1921 until 1961. Frunzes political position adhered to that of the Troika, but Stalin preferred to have a close, Frunze was urged by a group of Stalins hand-picked doctors to have surgery to treat an old stomach ulcer, despite previous doctors recommendations to avoid surgery and Frunzes own unwillingness. He died on the table of a massive overdose of chloroform. Voroshilov became a member of the newly formed Politburo in 1926. Voroshilov was appointed Peoples Commissar for Defence in 1934 and a Marshal of the Soviet Union in 1935 and he played a central role in Stalins Great Purge of the 1930s, denouncing many of his own military colleagues and subordinates when asked to do so by Stalin. Voroshilov personally signed 185 documented execution lists, fourth among the Soviet leadership after Molotov, Stalin, during World War II, Voroshilov was a member of the State Defense Committee. Voroshilov followed this retort by smashing a platter of roast suckling pig on the table, nikita Khrushchev said it was the only time he ever witnessed such an outburst. Voroshilov was nonetheless made the scapegoat for the failures in Finland. He was later replaced as Defense Commissar by Semyon Timoshenko, Voroshilov was then made Deputy Premier responsible for cultural matters. Voroshilov initially argued that thousands of Polish army officers captured in September 1939 should be released, after the German invasion of the Soviet Union in June 1941, Voroshilov became commander of the short-lived Northwestern Direction, controlling several fronts. In September 1941 he commanded the Leningrad Front, Stalin had a political need for popular wartime leaders, however, and Voroshilov remained as an important figurehead. In 1945–1947 Voroshilov supervised the establishment of the communist regime in postwar Hungary, in 1952, Voroshilov was appointed a member of the Presidium of the Central Committee. Stalins death on 5 March 1953 prompted major changes in the Soviet leadership, Voroshilov, Malenkov, and Khrushchev brought about the 26 June 1953 arrest of Lavrenty Beria after Stalins death
30.
Vasili Arkhipov
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Vasili Alexandrovich Arkhipov was a Soviet Navy officer credited with casting the single vote that prevented a Soviet nuclear strike during the Cuban Missile Crisis. Such an attack likely would have caused a global thermonuclear response which could destroy much of the world. In 2002 Thomas Blanton, who was director of the US National Security Archive. Arkhipov was born into a peasant family in the town of Staraya Kupavna and he was educated in the Pacific Higher Naval School and participated in the Soviet–Japanese War in August 1945, serving aboard a minesweeper. He transferred to the Caspian Higher Naval School and graduated in 1947, after graduating in 1947, Arkhipov served in the submarine service aboard boats in the Black Sea, Northern and Baltic Fleets. In July 1961, Arkhipov was appointed deputy commander and therefore executive officer of the new Hotel-class ballistic missile submarine K-19, after a few days of conducting exercises off the coast of Greenland, the submarine developed an extreme leak in its reactor coolant system. This leak led to failure of the cooling system, radio communications were also affected, and the crew was unable to make contact with Moscow. With no backup systems, Commander Zateyev ordered the seven members of the crew to come up with a solution to avoid nuclear meltdown. This required the men to work in high levels for extended periods. They eventually came up with a secondary coolant system and were able to keep the reactor from a meltdown, although they were able to save themselves from a nuclear meltdown the entire crew, including Arkhipov, were irradiated. All members of the crew and their divisional officer died within a month due to the high levels of radiation they were exposed to. Over the course of two years, fifteen more sailors died from the after-effects, despite being in international waters, the Americans started dropping signaling depth charges, explosives intended to force the submarine to come to the surface for identification. Those on board did not know whether war had broken out or not, the captain of the submarine, Valentin Grigorievitch Savitsky, decided that a war might already have started and wanted to launch a nuclear torpedo. Typically, Russian submarines armed with the Special Weapon only required the captain to get authorization from the officer to launch a nuclear torpedo. However, due to Arkhipovs position as commander, the B-59s captain also was required to gain Arkhipovs approval. An argument broke out, with only Arkhipov against the launch, according to author Edward Wilson, the reputation Arkhipov had gained from his courageous conduct in the previous years Soviet submarine K-19 incident also helped him prevail. Arkhipov eventually persuaded Savitsky to surface and await orders from Moscow and this effectively averted the nuclear warfare which probably would have ensued if the nuclear weapon had been fired. The submarines batteries had run low and the air-conditioning had failed, causing extreme heat
31.
Joseph Beyrle
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Joseph R. Beyrle is thought to be the only American soldier to have served with both the United States Army and the Soviet Army in World War II. Born in Muskegon, Michigan, Beyrle graduated from school in 1942 with the promise of a scholarship to the University of Notre Dame. After nine months of training, Beyrle completed two missions in occupied France in April and May 1944, delivering gold to the French Resistance. On June 6, D-Day, Beyrles C-47 came under fire over the Normandy coast. After landing in Saint-Côme-du-Mont, Sergeant Beyrle lost contact with his fellow paratroopers and he performed other sabotage missions before being captured by German soldiers a few days later. Over the next seven months, Beyrle was held in seven different German prisons and he escaped twice, only to be recaptured each time. Beyrle and his fellow prisoners had been hoping to find the Red Army, after the second escape, Beyrle was turned over to the Gestapo by a German civilian. Beaten and tortured, he was released to the German military after officials stepped in, the Gestapo were about to shoot Beyrle and his comrades, claiming that he was an American spy who had parachuted into Berlin. Beyrle was taken to the Stalag III-C POW camp in Alt Drewitz and he headed east, hoping to meet up with the Soviet army. Encountering a Soviet tank brigade in the middle of January, he raised his hands, holding a pack of Lucky Strike cigarettes, and shouted in Russian, Amerikansky tovarishch. Beyrles new battalion was the one that freed his former camp, Stalag III-C, at the end of January, a funeral mass had been held in his honor in Muskegon, and his obituary was published in the local newspaper. Embassy officers in Moscow, unsure of his bona fides, placed him under Marine guard in the Metropol Hotel until his identity was established through his fingerprints, Beyrle returned home to Michigan on April 21,1945, and celebrated V-E Day two weeks later in Chicago. He was married to JoAnne Hollowell in 1946—coincidentally, in the same church, Beyrle worked for Brunswick Corporation for 28 years, retiring as a shipping supervisor. Beyrle died in his sleep of heart failure on December 12,2004 during a visit to Toccoa, Georgia and he was buried with honors in Section 1 of Arlington National Cemetery in April,2005. Beyrle and his wife JoAnne had a daughter, Julie, the elder son, Joe Beyrle II, served in the 101st Airborne during Vietnam. His son John Beyrle served as the United States Ambassador to Russia 2008-2012, on September 17,2002, a book by Thomas Taylor about Beyrle, The Simple Sounds of Freedom, was published by Random House. A Ballantine paperback version, Behind Hitlers Lines, came out June 1,2004, in 2005, a plaque was unveiled on the wall of the church in Saint-Côme-du-Mont, France, where Beyrle landed on June 6,1944. A permanent plaque was dedicated at the site on July 5,2014, an exhibition devoted to Joe Beyrles life and wartime experiences was shown in Moscow and three other Russian cities in 2010
32.
Sergey Semyonovich Biryuzov
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Sergey Semyonovich Biryuzov was a Marshal of the Soviet Union and Chief of the General Staff. Biryuzov was born in Skopin, in the province of Ryazan, a member of the CPSU since 1926, he joined the Red Army in the 1920s and was steadily promoted to become the commander of a battalion before going to the Frunze Military Academy in 1934. He graduated in 1937, after which he became the Chief of Staff of a rifle division. In 1939 he was made Chief of Operations for the Kharkov Military district, biryuzov’s division was a part of Southwestern and Bryansk Fronts. Biriuzov was a division commander, often leading his division personally into battle. Within the first year of Operation Barbarossa, Biryuzov had been wounded five times, in April 1942, he was made the Chief of Staff of the 48th Army, which was a part of Bryansk Front. He commanded this unit until November 1942, when he was made the Chief of Staff of the 2nd Guards Army. In April 1943, he was made the Chief of Staff of the Southern Front, on October 20,1943, Southern Front was renamed 4th Ukrainian Front. Biryuzov remained the Chief of Staff until May 1944 when he was transferred to 3rd Ukrainian Front, in October 1944, Biryuzov was transferred to command the 37th Army, which was a part of 3rd Ukrainian Front. He held this position through the end of the war, until May 1946, in these command positions, Biriuzov helped plan and carry out the expulsion of all German forces from the Ukraine, and then helped plan and carry out the liberation of Bulgaria and Yugoslavia. After these commands, Biryuzov was made the Head of the Soviet Military Mission in Bulgaria, between 1947 and 1953, he commanded the Primorskiy Military District. From 1947-55, Biryuzov held numerous positions, but he didn’t remain in any position too long. On March 11,1955, Biriuzov was given the rank of Marshal of the Soviet Union, between April 1955 and April 1962, Biryuzov was the Commander in Chief of the Soviet Air Defense Forces. After this, he was made Commander in Chief of the Strategic Missile Force, on October 19,1964, Biryuzov and 32 others were killed when their Ilyushin Il-18 crashed against mount Avala near Belgrade. The urn containing his ashes is buried in the Kremlin. dk
33.
Vasily Blokhin
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Forced into retirement following the death of Stalin, Blokhin died in 1955, officially reported as a suicide. Blokhin, born into a peasant family on 7 January 1895, served in the Imperial Russian Army during World War I and this branch was a company-sized element created by Stalin specifically for wetwork. He was awarded the Badge of Honor for his service in 1937, Blokhins most infamous act was the April 1940 execution by shooting of more than 9,000 Polish prisoners interned in the Ostashkov prisoner of war camp in the Katyn forest. The majority were military and police officers who had captured following the Soviet invasion of Poland in 1939. In 1990, as part of Glasnost, Gorbachev gave the Polish government the files on the massacres at Katyn, Starobelsk and Kalinin, revealing Stalins involvement. The room was designed with padded walls for soundproofing, a sloping concrete floor with a drain and hose. Blokhin would stand waiting behind the door in his executioner garb, a butchers apron, leather hat. He had brought a full of his own Walther pistols, since he did not trust the reliability of the standard-issue Soviet TT-30 for the frequent. The use of a German pocket pistol, which was carried by German police and intelligence agents. In keeping with NKVD policy and the overall wet nature of the operation, each night, 24–25 trenches, measuring eight to 10 meters total, were dug to hold that nights corpses, and each trench was covered up before dawn. Blokhin and his team worked without pause for 10 hours each night, at the end of the night, Blokhin provided vodka to all his men. Blokhin was forcibly retired in 1953 following Stalins death that March, after Berias fall from power in June of the same year, Blokhins rank was stripped from him in the de-Stalinization campaigns of Nikita Khrushchev. He reportedly sank into alcoholism, went insane, and died on 3 February 1955, the Secret File of Joseph Stalin, A Hidden Life. The Worlds Bloodiest History, Massacre, Genocide, and the Scars They Left on Civilization, Stalin, The Court of the Red Tsar. The Lesser Terror, Soviet state security, 1939–1953, Stalin and His Hangmen, The tyrant and those who killed for him. Katyn and the Soviet Massacre of 1940, Truth, Justice and Memory
34.
Gleb Bokii
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Gleb Ivanovich Bokii was an ethnic Ukrainian Communist political activist and revolutionary in the Russian Empire. Following the October Revolution of 1917, Bokii became a member of the Cheka. From 1921 through 1934, Bokii was the head of the special department of the Soviet secret police apparatus. He remained a top level functionary in the police apparatus until his sudden arrest in May 1937 as part of the Great Terror. Following an extended investigation, Bokii was given a summary trial, in 1956, Bokii was posthumously rehabilitated by Soviet authorities. Gleb Bokii was born July 3,1879 into the family of an ethnic Ukrainian teacher in Tiflis, Bokii grew up in St. Petersburg, Russia, where he attended school, graduating from the Petersburg Mining Institute in 1896. Bokii joined the Russian Social Democratic Labor Party in 1900 and worked in that organization as a revolutionary as a party organizer. Bokii was a loyalist to the Bolshevik faction of that organization, Lenin and was elected a member of the governing Petersburg Committee of the RSDLP from 1904 to 1909. In these early activist years, Bokii was already to show impressive talent in cryptography, in the Revolution of 1905, Bokii participated in street fighting on Vasilyevsky Island, part of St. Petersburg bounded by the Neva River. At the time of World War I, Bokii served as a member of the Central Bureau of the RSDLP from 1914 to 1915, during the course of his revolutionary activities, Bokii was arrested a dozen times, and suffered two terms of political exile to Siberia. He used the party names Kuzma, Diadia, and Maksim Ivanovich during the Bolshevik Partys underground period, and the certain death of our party as a revolutionary vanguard. We have ample grounds for asserting that signing a peace would run counter to the opinion of the majority in our party. If our present peace policy continues, a special party conference to decide the peace question was called for by Bokii and his comrades of the Peterburg Committee. Ultimately, the German offensive was halted when Lenin and the party Central Committee won the day by signing the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk with the government of Imperial Germany on March 3,1918. Territory including a quarter of Russias population and a quarter of its industry were ceded to the Germans under the terms of the peace. On March 13,1918, Bokii went to work as deputy head of the Extraordinary Commission of the Northern oblast and Petrograd. He remained in position until the end of August 1918, at which time he was briefly made the head of that same organization following the assassination of his chief. The German Consul in Petrograd bombarded with letters demanding the release of individuals from countries under German protection who were swept up in the dragnet—over 1000 in all
35.
David Dragunsky
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David Abramovich Dragunsky was born to a Jewish family and became a Colonel General in the Soviet Army. Twice he was decorated as a Hero of the Soviet Union, in 1938, he commanded an Infantry company during combat operations near Khasan Lake and was awarded an Order of the Red Banner. During World War II, he was in command of a Tank battalion and, in 1943, between 1961 and 1965, he commanded the 7th Guards Army. He became a member of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union in 1932, a member of the Regimental Party Committee in 1935. He became a Candidate Member of the Central Committee of the CPSU in 1974, in 1977, he was designated chairman of Anti-Zionist committee of the Soviet public by the Ideological Department of the CPSU Central Committee and the KGB. After the fall of the Soviet Union, it was revealed that he himself was under the surveillance of the KGB during the 1960s and 1970s because of his Israeli relatives. A Soldiers Memoirs Pages From the Story of My Life His biography William Korey, Russian Antisemitism, Pamyat and Demonology of Zionism, Harwood Academic Publishers,1995
36.
Vladimir Lenin All-Union Pioneer Organization
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The Vladimir Lenin All-Union Pioneer Organization was a mass youth organization of the Soviet Union for children of age 10–15 that existed between 1922 and 1991. Similar to the Scouting organisations of the Western world, Pioneers learned skills of social cooperation, after the October Revolution of 1917, some Scouts took the Bolsheviks side, which would later lead to the establishment of ideologically altered Scoutlike organizations, such as ЮК and others. During the Russian Civil War from 1917 to 1921, most of the Scoutmasters and many Scouts fought in the ranks of the White Army and those Scouts who did not wish to accept the new Soviet system either left Russia for good or went underground. However, clandestine Scouting did not last long, Komsomol persistently fought with the remnants of the Scout movement. This organization would properly educate children with Communist teachings, on behalf of the Soviet Government Nadezhda Krupskaya was one of the main contributors to the cause of the Pioneer movement. In 1922, she wrote an essay called Russian Union of the Communist Youth and boy-Scoutism. as the organizational motto and slogan. Thereby they suggested to use the system as a foundation of the new communist organization for children. The main contribution of the scoutmasters was the introduction of the new expression system scouting into the discourse on communist childrens, by doing so they avoided the dissolution of the scout organization as it would happen sooner or later to any organization opposed to the Komsomol. May 19,1922 was later on considered the birthday of the All-Union Pioneer Organization, by October 1922 pioneer units nationwide were united to form the Spartak Young Pioneers Organization, which was named after V. I. Lenin by a decision of the Central Committee of Komsomol of January 21,1924, since March 1926 it bore the name Vladimir Lenin All-Union Pioneer Organization. By the middle of 1923 it had 75,000 members, among other activities, Young Pioneer units, helped by the Komsomol members and leadership at all levels, played a great role in the eradication of illiteracy since 1923. Membership was at 161,000 in the beginning of 1924,2 million in 1926,13.9 million in 1940, and 25 million in 1974. Many Young Pioneer Palaces were built, which served as community centers for the children, with rooms dedicated to various clubs, thousands of Young Pioneer camps were set up where children went during summer vacation and winter holidays. All of them were free of charge, sponsored by the government, during World War Two the Pioneers worked hard to contribute to the war effort at all costs. One of them widely known, for his resistance in Kerch. Its main grouping of members until 1942 was the Young Pioneer detachment, from 1942 to October 1990 the detachment was made up of children belonging to the same class within a school, while a school was referred to as a Young Pioneer group. At age 15, Young Pioneers could join Komsomol, with a recommendation from their Young Pioneer group, the main governing body was the Central Soviet of the Young Pioneer organization of the Soviet Union, which worked under the leadership of the main governing body of Komsomol. Its official newspaper was Pionerskaya Pravda, there were two major revisions of them, in 1967 and 1986
37.
Volodia Dubinin
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Volodia Dubinin was a Pioneer Hero of the Soviet Union. His real name is Vladimir Nikiforovich Dubinin, following a local tradition, he was called Volodia. He was born to Nikifor Semionovich Dubinin and Evdoquia Timofeievna Dubinina, since he used to play there as a little boy, his knowledge of the area, tunnels and exits was vast, and proved to be very useful for the resistance. When Germans had withdrawn, Volodia shared in cleaning and rebuilding the city and that is what he was doing when he trod on a land mine left by the Germans and lost his life on January 4,1942. After his death, he was granted Order of the Red Banner, the school he attended was renamed after him, and so was the street where he lived in Kerch. On it the Pioneers Square is located, where a monument to Volodia rises and it depicts him as coming out of the rock. These are the words written on it in Russian, Hero Pioneer, for heroism and courage displayed fighting against fascists invaders, Vladimir Dubinin was posthumously granted the Order of the Red Banner. The monument was unveiled on July 12,1964, a street named after him can also be found in each of the following cities, Kiev, Podolsk and Petrodvorets. In 1949, Soviet writers Lev Kassil and Max Polianovsky published his biography, in 1962, on May 21, a movie directed by Lev Golub based on that biography premiered under the same title. Monument to Volodia Dubinin, only in Russian
38.
Leonid Govorov
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Leonid Aleksandrovich Govorov was a Soviet military commander. An artillery officer, he joined the Red Army in 1920 and he graduated from several Soviet military academies, including the Military Academy of Red Army General Staff. He participated in the Winter War as an artillery officer. In World War II, Govorov rose to command an army in November 1941 during the Battle of Moscow and he commanded the Leningrad Front from April 1942 to the end of the war. He reached the rank of Marshal of the Soviet Union in 1944, was awarded the title of Hero of the Soviet Union, leonid Aleksandrovich Govorov was born into a peasant family of Russian ethnicity in the village of Butyrki in Vyatka Governorate. He attended a high school in Yelabuga and enrolled in the shipbuilding department of Petrograd Polytechnical Institute. In December 1916, however, he was mobilized and was sent to the Konstantinovskye Artillery School and he became an artillery officer with the rank of podporuchik. When the Russian Revolution broke out and the Russian Army disintegrated, Govorov returned home and he deserted in late 1919 and joined the Red Army in early 1920. In the Russian Civil War he served in the 51st Rifle Division and he was awarded the Order of the Red Banner in 1921. Govorov obtained further education, graduating from the Artillery course in 1926, the Higher Academy course in 1930. In 1936, Govorov was among the first officers who attended the newly founded Military Academy of Red Army General Staff, from 1936, he was head of artillery in the Kiev Military District. In 1938 he was appointed as lecturer in tactics at the Dzerzhinsky Artillery Academy, in 1939, he finished his first research publication. This was the period of Joseph Stalins Great Purge, Govorov was close to being arrested, but in the end survived thanks to the intervention of Mikhail Kalinin and continued to rise in rank. He commanded the artillery assault that allowed the Soviet breakthrough along the Mannerheim Line in 1940. For this he was awarded the Order of the Red Star and he was then appointed Deputy Inspector-General of Artillery of the Red Army. After Nazi Germany invaded the Soviet Union in June 1941, Govorov commanded the Artillery on the Western Front in Belarus from August to October 1941. During the Battle of Moscow, he was appointed Chief of Artillery of the 5th Army, after Lelyushenko was wounded on 18 October Govorov assumed command of the army. During the Soviet counter-offensives in the winter of 1941–42, his army liberated Mozhaisk, as a result, he was promoted to the rank of lieutenant-general of artillery
39.
Irina Sebrova
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Irina Feodorovna Sebrova was a lieutenant and pilot for the Soviet Air Forces who served in the all-female Night Witches during the Second World War. Sebrova was awarded the title Hero of Soviet Union, at the age of 23, she was already an experienced flight instructor at the Frunze flight club in Moscow. In 1938, she graduated from the Moscow Aeroclub, and in 1940 she began training in military aviation. Joining the Red Army in October 1941, she completed her military aviation studies and was assigned to the 588th Night Bomber Regiment, also known as the Night Witches, Sebrova took part in 1008 bombing sorties against the Axis. Sebrova joined the Communist Party of the Soviet Union in 1943, on February 23,1945, by decree of the Presidium, Sebrova was awarded the Hero of Soviet Union with a Gold Star and the Order of Lenin. Sebrova retired from the Air Force in 1948, joining the Moscow Aviation Institute and she died in 2000 and is buried in Rakitin Cemetery. Sebrova was awarded the Order of Lenin,3 Orders of the Red Banner, Order of the Patriotic War, 1st and 2nd degree, Night Witches List of female Heroes of the Soviet Union Ракобольская И. —336 с Milanetti, Gian Piero, Soviet Airwomen of the Great Patriotic War - A pictorial history
40.
Rodion Malinovsky
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Rodion Yakovlevich Malinovsky was a Soviet military commander in World War II, Marshal of the Soviet Union, and Defense Minister of the Soviet Union in the late 1950s and 1960s. He contributed to the defeat of Germany at the Battle of Stalingrad. During the post-war era, he made a contribution to the strengthening of the Soviet Union as a military superpower. Born in Odessa, some believe that Malinovskys father was of Karaite descent. After the death of his father, Malinovskys mother left the city for the areas of Ukraine. Her husband, a poverty-stricken Ukrainian peasant, refused to adopt her son, the homeless boy survived by working as a farmhand, and eventually received shelter from his aunts family in Odessa, where he worked as an errand boy in a general store. After the start of World War I in July 1914, Malinovsky, who was only 15 years old at the time, hid on the train heading for the German front. He nevertheless convinced the officers to enlist him as a volunteer. In October 1915, as a reward for repelling a German attack, he received his first military award, the Cross of St. George of the 4th class, soon afterwards, he was badly wounded and spent several months in the hospital. After his recovery, he was sent to France in 1916 as a member of the Western Front Russian Expeditionary Corps, Malinovsky fought in a hotly contested sector of the front near Fort Brion and was promoted to sergeant. He suffered a wound in his left arm, and received a decoration from the French government. Malinovsky fought against the Germans until the end of the war, during this time, he was awarded the French Croix de guerre and promoted to senior NCO. He returned to Odessa in 1919, where he joined the Red Army in the Civil War against the White Army and fought with distinction in Siberia. He remained in the army after the end of the conflict, studying in the school for the junior commanders. In 1926, he became a member of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, in 1927, Malinovsky was sent to study at the elite Frunze Military Academy. He graduated in 1930, and during the seven years he rose to the Chief of Staff of the 3rd Cavalry Corps. He participated in planning and directing several main operations, in order to strengthen the Red Army field command, he dispatched some of the top officers from the military academies to the field units. Malinovsky was promoted to General-Major, and took command over the freshly raised 48th Rifle Corps, a week prior to the start of the war, Malinovsky deployed his corps close to the Romanian border
41.
Kim Il-sung
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Kim Il-sung was the supreme leader of the Democratic Peoples Republic of Korea, commonly referred to as North Korea, for 46 years, from its establishment in 1948 until his death in 1994. He held the posts of Prime Minister from 1948 to 1972 and he was also the leader of the Workers Party of Korea from 1949 to 1994. Coming to power after the overthrow of Japanese rule in 1945, he authorized the invasion of South Korea in 1950, a cease-fire in the Korean War was signed on 27 July 1953. Under his leadership, North Korea became a workers state with a publicly owned planned economy. It had close political and economic relations with the Soviet Union, by the 1960s and 1970s, North Korea enjoyed a relatively high standard of living, outperforming the South, which was riddled with political instability and economic crises. Despite this, the country still received massive funds, subsidies, during this period, the DPRK also remained critical of capitalism and the United States, seizing the American ship USS Pueblo in 1968. A cult of personality around Kim Il-sung came to domestic politics. His birthday is a holiday in North Korea and is called the Day of the Sun. Controversy surrounds Kims life before the founding of North Korea, with some sources labeling him an impostor, several sources indicate that the name Kim Il-sung had previously been used by a prominent early leader of the Korean resistance, Kim Kyung-cheon. The Soviet officer Grigory Mekler, who worked with Kim during the Soviet occupation, however, historian Andrei Lankov has argued that this is unlikely to be true. Several witnesses knew Kim before and after his time in the Soviet Union, including his superior, Zhou Baozhong, historian Bruce Cumings pointed out that Japanese officers from the Kwantung Army have attested to his fame as a resistance figure. Historians generally accept that, while Kims exploits were exaggerated by the personality cult that was built around him, Kims family is said to have originated from Jeonju, North Jeolla Province. His great-grandfather, Kim Ung-u, settled in Mangyong-dae in 1860, Kim is reported to have been born in the small village of Mangyungbong near Pyongyang on 15 April 1912. Born to Kim Hyŏng-jik and Kang Pan-sŏk, who gave him the name Kim Sŏng-ju, according to Kim, his family was not very poor, but was always a step away from poverty. According to the version, Kim’s family participated in anti-Japanese activities. Like most Korean families, they resented the Japanese occupation of the Korean peninsula, another view seems to be that his family settled in Manchuria, as many Koreans had at the time to escape famine. Nonetheless, Kims parents, especially Kims mother Kang Ban Suk and their exact involvement — whether their cause was missionary, nationalist, or both — is unclear nevertheless. Still, Japanese repression of opposition was brutal, resulting in the arrest and this repression forced many Korean families to flee Korea and settle in Manchuria
42.
Kim Philby
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Harold Adrian Russell Kim Philby was a high-ranking member of British intelligence who worked as a double agent before defecting to the Soviet Union in 1963. He served as both an NKVD and KGB operative, in 1963, Philby was revealed to be a member of the spy ring now known as the Cambridge Five, the other members of which were Donald Maclean, Guy Burgess, Anthony Blunt and, possibly, John Cairncross. Of the five, Philby is believed to have been most successful in providing information to the Soviet Union. His activities were moderated only by Joseph Stalins fears that he was a Triple Agent providing Soviet intelligence to British authorities, Philby was an Officer of the Order of the British Empire from 1946 to 1965. Philby was born at Ambala in the Punjab Province of British India and he was the son of Dora and St John Philby, who was a well-known author, orientalist and convert to Islam. His father was a member of the Indian Civil Service and later a civil servant in Mesopotamia, nicknamed Kim after the boy in Rudyard Kiplings novel Kim, Philby attended Aldro preparatory school. In his early teens he spent some time with the Bedouin in the desert of Saudi Arabia to be turned into a man, following in the footsteps of his father, he continued to Westminster School, which he left in 1928 at the age of 16. He won a scholarship to Trinity College, Cambridge, where he read History and he graduated in 1933 with a 2,1 degree in Economics. Upon Philbys graduation, Maurice Dobb, a fellow of Kings College, Cambridge, the organization was one of several fronts operated by German Communist Willi Münzenberg, a member of the Reichstag who had fled to France in 1933. In Vienna, working to aid refugees from Nazi Germany, Philby met and fell in love with Litzi Friedmann, a young Austrian Communist of Hungarian Jewish origins. Philby admired the strength of her convictions and later recalled that at their first meeting, frank and direct person, Litzi came out. I replied £100, which I hoped would last me about a year in Vienna and she made some calculations and announced, That will leave you an excess of £25. You can give that to the International Organisation for Aid for Revolutionaries and he acted as a courier between Vienna and Prague, paying for the train tickets out of his remaining £75 and using his British passport to evade suspicion. He also delivered clothes and money to refugees from the Nazis, with threats of an armed uprising against Austrian Chancellor Engelbert Dollfuss and the deaths of several hundred people in the February Uprising, Philbys British passport became even more valuable. He and Friedmann married in February 1934, enabling her to escape to the United Kingdom with him two months later, according to Genrikh Borovik, who worked from Soviet archives, Tudor Hart recommended Philby and Friedmann in 1934. Peter Wright, a former senior MI5 officer, said in his 1987 book, in January 1934 Arnold Deutsch, one of NKVDs agents, was sent to London. As a cover for his activities he did post-graduate work at London University. In May, he made contact with Friedmann and discussed the recruitment of Soviet spies, Philby later recalled that in June 1934, Lizzy came home one evening and told me that she had arranged for me to meet a man of decisive importance
43.
Sergey Kirov
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Sergei Mironovich Kirov, born Kostrikov, was a prominent early Bolshevik leader in the Soviet Union. Kirov rose through the Communist Party ranks to head of the party organization in Leningrad. On 1 December 1934, Kirov was shot and killed by a gunman at his offices in the Smolny Institute, some historians place the blame for his assassination at the hands of Joseph Stalin and believe the NKVD organized his execution, but conclusive evidence for this claim remains lacking. Complicity in Kirovs assassination was a charge to which the accused confessed in the show trials of the period. The cities of Kirov, Kirovohrad, Kirovakan, and Kirovabad, following the collapse of the Soviet Union, Kirovakan and Kirovabad returned to their original names, Vanadzor and Ganja, respectively. In order to comply with decommunization laws Kirovohrad was renamed in July 2016 by the Ukrainian parliament to Kropyvnytskyi, miron, an alcoholic, abandoned the family around 1890. In 1893, Yekaterina died of tuberculosis, through her connections, she succeeded in having Sergey placed in an orphanage, but he saw his sisters and grandmother regularly. In 1901 a group of wealthy benefactors provided a scholarship for him to attend a school at Kazan. After gaining his degree in engineering he moved to Tomsk in Siberia, Kirov became a Marxist and joined the Russian Social Democratic Labor Party in 1904. Kirov took part in the Russian Revolution of 1905, and was arrested and he joined with the Bolsheviks soon after being released from prison. In 1906, Kirov was arrested again, but this time jailed for over three years, charged with printing illegal literature. Soon after his release, he took part in revolutionary activity. Once again being arrested for printing illegal literature, after a year of custody, Kostrikov moved to the Caucasus, where he stayed until the abdication of Tsar Nicholas II. By this time, Sergei Kostrikov had changed his name to Kirov in order to make his name easier to remember, kostrikove began using the pen name Kir, first publishing under the pseudonym Kirov on April 26,1912. One account states that he chose the name Kir, after a Christian martyr in third-century Egypt from an Orthodox calendar of saints days, a second story is that he based it on the name of the Persian king Cyrus. Kirov became commander of the Bolshevik military administration in Astrakhan, following the Russian Revolution of 1917, he fought in the Russian Civil War until 1920. Simon Sebag Montefiore writes, During the Civil War, Kirov was one of the swashbuckling commissars in the North Caucasus beside Ordzhonikidze, in Astrakhan he enforced Bolshevik power in March 1919 with liberal bloodletting, more than 4,000 were killed. When a bourgeois was caught hiding his own furniture, Kirov ordered him shot, in 1921, he became manager of the Azerbaijan party organization
Soviet Union
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