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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
2.
Play (theatre)
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A play is a form of literature written by a playwright, usually consisting of dialogue between characters, intended for theatrical performance rather than just reading. Plays are performed at a variety of levels, from Broadway, Off-Broadway, regional theater, to Community theatre, there are rare dramatists, notably George Bernard Shaw, who have had little preference as to whether their plays were performed or read. The term play can refer to both the works of playwrights and to their complete theatrical performance. Comedies are plays which are designed to be humorous, comedies are often filled with witty remarks, unusual characters, and strange circumstances. Certain comedies are geared toward different age groups, comedies were one of the two original play types of Ancient Greece, along with tragedies. An example of a comedy would be William Shakespeares play A Midsummer Nights Dream, a generally nonsensical genre of play, farces are often overacted and often involve slapstick humor. An example of a farce includes William Shakespeares play The Comedy of Errors, a satire play takes a comic look at current events people while at the same time attempting to make a political or social statement, for example pointing out corruption. An example of a satire would be Nikolai Gogols The Government Inspector, satire plays are generally one of the most popular forms of comedy, and often considered to be their own genre entirely. This is a genre that explored relationships between men and women, and was considered risqué in its time, however, since restoration comedy dealt with unspoken aspects of relationships, it created a type of connection between audience and performance that was more informal and private. It is commonly agreed that restoration comedy has origins in Molière’s theories of comedy, the inconsistency between restoration comedy’s morals and the morals of the era is something that often arises during the study of this genre. This may give clues as to why, despite its original success, however, in recent years, it has become a topic of interest for theatre theorists, who have been looking into theatre styles that have their own conventions of performance. These plays contain darker themes such as death and disaster, often the protagonist of the play has a tragic flaw, a trait which leads to their downfall. Tragic plays convey all emotions and have extremely dramatic conflicts, tragedy was one of the two original play types of Ancient Greece. Some examples of tragedies include William Shakespeares Hamlet, and also John Websters play The Duchess of Malfi and these plays focus on actual historical events. They can be tragedies or comedies, but are neither of these. History as a genre was popularized by William Shakespeare. Examples of historical plays include Friedrich Schillers Demetrius and William Shakespeares King John, ballad opera, a popular theatre style at the time, was the first style of musical to be performed in the American colonies. The first musical of American origin was premiered in Philadelphia in 1767, and was called “The Disappointment”, however, around the 1920s, theatre styles were beginning to be defined more clearly
3.
Nikolai Gogol
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Nikolai Vasilievich Gogol was a Russian dramatist of Ukrainian origin. His early works, such as Evenings on a Farm Near Dikanka, were influenced by his Ukrainian upbringing and his later writing satirised political corruption in the Russian Empire. Gogol was born in the Ukrainian Cossack village of Sorochyntsi, in Poltava Governorate of the Russian Empire and his mother descended from Leonty Kosyarovsky, an officer of the Lubny Regiment in 1710. As was typical of the left-bank Ukrainian gentry of the nineteenth century. As a child, Gogol helped stage Ukrainian-language plays in his uncles home theater, in 1820, Gogol went to a school of higher art in Nezhin and remained there until 1828. It was there that he began writing and he was not popular among his schoolmates, who called him their mysterious dwarf, but with two or three of them he formed lasting friendships. Very early he developed a dark and secretive disposition, marked by a painful self-consciousness and boundless ambition, equally early he developed a talent for mimicry, which later made him a matchless reader of his own works and induced him to toy with the idea of becoming an actor. In 1828, on leaving school, Gogol came to Saint Petersburg, full of vague and he had hoped for literary fame, and brought with him a Romantic poem of German idyllic life – Hans Küchelgarten. He had it published, at his own expense, under the name of V. Alov, the magazines he sent it to almost universally derided it. He bought all the copies and destroyed them, swearing never to write poetry again, Gogol was in touch with the literary aristocracy, had a story published in Anton Delvigs Northern Flowers, was taken up by Vasily Zhukovsky and Pyotr Pletnyov, and was introduced to Pushkin. In 1831 Gogol brought out the first volume of his Ukrainian stories and he followed it in 1832 with a second volume, and in 1835 by two volumes of stories entitled Mirgorod, as well as by two volumes of miscellaneous prose entitled Arabesques. However, Gogols satire was much more sophisticated and unconventional, at this time, Gogol developed a passion for Ukrainian history and tried to obtain an appointment to the history department at Kiev University. Despite the support of Pushkin and Sergey Uvarov, the Russian minister of education and his fictional story Taras Bulba, based on the history of Ukrainian cossacks, was the result of this phase in his interests. During this time he developed a close and lifelong friendship with another Ukrainian. In 1834 Gogol was made Professor of Medieval History at the University of St. Petersburg and he turned in a performance ludicrous enough to warrant satiric treatment in one of his own stories. At the final examination, he sat in silence with a black handkerchief wrapped around his head, simulating a toothache. This academic venture proved a failure and he resigned his chair in 1835, during this time, the Russian critics Stepan Shevyrev and Vissarion Belinsky, contradicting earlier critics, reclassified Gogol from a Ukrainian to a Russian writer. It was only after the presentation at the Saint Petersburg State Theatre, on 19 April 1836, the comedy, a violent satire of Russian provincial bureaucracy, was staged thanks only to the intervention of the emperor, Nicholas I
4.
Alexander Pushkin
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Alexander Sergeyevich Pushkin was a Russian poet, playwright, and novelist of the Romantic era who is considered by many to be the greatest Russian poet and the founder of modern Russian literature. Pushkin was born into Russian nobility in Moscow and his matrilineal great-grandfather was Abram Petrovich Gannibal, who was kidnapped from Eritrea and raised in the household of Peter the Great. Pushkin published his first poem at the age of fifteen, and was recognized by the literary establishment by the time of his graduation from the Tsarskoye Selo Lyceum. While under the surveillance of the Tsars political police and unable to publish, Pushkin wrote his most famous play. His novel in verse, Eugene Onegin, was serialized between 1825 and 1832, Pushkins father, Sergei Lvovich Pushkin, was descended from a distinguished family of the Russian nobility that traced its ancestry back to the 12th century. Pushkins mother, Nadezhda Ossipovna Gannibal, was descended through her grandmother from German and Scandinavian nobility. She was the daughter of Ossip Abramovich Gannibal and his wife, Abram wrote in a letter to Empress Elizabeth, Peter the Greats daughter, that Gannibal was from the town of Lagon. Largely on the basis of a biography by Gannibals son-in-law Rotkirkh. Vladimir Nabokov, when researching Eugene Onegin, cast serious doubt on this origin theory, after education in France as a military engineer, Gannibal became governor of Reval and eventually Général en Chef in charge of the building of sea forts and canals in Russia. Born in Moscow, Pushkin published his first poem at the age of fifteen, after school, Pushkin plunged into the vibrant and raucous intellectual youth culture of the capital, Saint Petersburg. In 1820 he published his first long poem, Ruslan and Ludmila, amidst much controversy about its subject, Pushkin gradually became committed to social reform and emerged as a spokesman for literary radicals. This angered the government, and led to his transfer from the capital in May 1820 and he went to the Caucasus and to Crimea, then to Kamianka and Chișinău, where he became a Freemason. Here he joined the Filiki Eteria, an organization whose purpose was to overthrow Ottoman rule in Greece. He was inspired by the Greek Revolution and when the war against the Ottoman Turks broke out he kept a recording the events of the great national uprising. He stayed in Chișinău until 1823 and wrote two Romantic poems which brought him acclaim, The Captive of the Caucasus and The Fountain of Bakhchisaray. In 1823 Pushkin moved to Odessa, where he clashed with the government. In Mikhaylovskoye, Pushkin wrote nostalgic love poems which he dedicated to Elizaveta Vorontsova, then Pushkin continued work on his verse-novel Eugene Onegin. In Mikhaylovskoye, in 1825, Pushkin wrote the poem To*** and it is generally believed that he dedicated this poem to Anna Kern, but there are other opinions
5.
Political corruption
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Political corruption is the use of powers by government officials for illegitimate private gain. An illegal act by an officeholder constitutes political corruption only if the act is related to their official duties, is done under color of law or involves trading in influence. Forms of corruption vary, but include bribery, extortion, cronyism, nepotism, parochialism, patronage, influence peddling, graft, Corruption may facilitate criminal enterprise such as drug trafficking, money laundering, and human trafficking, though is not restricted to these activities. Misuse of government power for other purposes, such as repression of political opponents, the activities that constitute illegal corruption differ depending on the country or jurisdiction. For instance, some political funding practices that are legal in one place may be illegal in another, in some cases, government officials have broad or ill-defined powers, which make it difficult to distinguish between legal and illegal actions. Worldwide, bribery alone is estimated to involve over 1 trillion US dollars annually, a state of unrestrained political corruption is known as a kleptocracy, literally meaning rule by thieves. Some forms of corruption – now called institutional corruption – are distinguished from bribery, a similar problem of corruption arises in any institution that depends on financial support from people who have interests that may conflict with the primary purpose of the institution. In politics, corruption undermines democracy and good governance by flouting or even subverting formal processes and it violates a basic principle of republicanism regarding the centrality of civic virtue. More generally, corruption erodes the institutional capacity of government if procedures are disregarded, resources are siphoned off, Corruption undermines the legitimacy of government and such democratic values as trust and tolerance. Recent evidence suggests that variation in the levels of corruption amongst high-income democracies can vary depending on the level of accountability of decision-makers. Evidence from fragile states also shows that corruption and bribery can adversely impact trust in institutions, although some claim corruption reduces costs by cutting bureaucracy, the availability of bribes can also induce officials to contrive new rules and delays. Openly removing costly and lengthy regulations are better than allowing them to be bypassed by using bribes. Where corruption inflates the cost of business, it distorts the playing field, shielding firms with connections from competition. Corruption also generates economic distortion in the sector by diverting public investment into capital projects where bribes. Officials may increase the complexity of public sector projects to conceal or pave the way for such dealings. In Nigeria, for example, more than $400 billion was stolen from the treasury by Nigerias leaders between 1960 and 1999, University of Massachusetts Amherst researchers estimated that from 1970 to 1996, capital flight from 30 Sub-Saharan countries totaled $187bn, exceeding those nations external debts. In the case of Africa, one of the factors for this behavior was political instability, and this encouraged officials to stash their wealth abroad, out of reach of any future expropriation. In contrast, Asian administrations such as Suhartos New Order often took a cut on business transactions or provided conditions for development, through investment, law and order
6.
Imperial Russia
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The Russian Empire was a state that existed from 1721 until it was overthrown by the short-lived February Revolution in 1917. One of the largest empires in history, stretching over three continents, the Russian Empire was surpassed in landmass only by the British and Mongol empires. The rise of the Russian Empire happened in association with the decline of neighboring powers, the Swedish Empire, the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth, Persia. It played a role in 1812–14 in defeating Napoleons ambitions to control Europe. The House of Romanov ruled the Russian Empire from 1721 until 1762, and its German-descended cadet branch, with 125.6 million subjects registered by the 1897 census, it had the third-largest population in the world at the time, after Qing China and India. Like all empires, it included a large disparity in terms of economics, ethnicity, there were numerous dissident elements, who launched numerous rebellions and assassination attempts, they were closely watched by the secret police, with thousands exiled to Siberia. Economically, the empire had an agricultural base, with low productivity on large estates worked by serfs. The economy slowly industrialized with the help of foreign investments in railways, the land was ruled by a nobility from the 10th through the 17th centuries, and subsequently by an emperor. Tsar Ivan III laid the groundwork for the empire that later emerged and he tripled the territory of his state, ended the dominance of the Golden Horde, renovated the Moscow Kremlin, and laid the foundations of the Russian state. Tsar Peter the Great fought numerous wars and expanded an already huge empire into a major European power, Catherine the Great presided over a golden age. She expanded the state by conquest, colonization and diplomacy, continuing Peter the Greats policy of modernisation along West European lines, Tsar Alexander II promoted numerous reforms, most dramatically the emancipation of all 23 million serfs in 1861. His policy in Eastern Europe involved protecting the Orthodox Christians under the rule of the Ottoman Empire and that connection by 1914 led to Russias entry into the First World War on the side of France, Britain, and Serbia, against the German, Austrian and Ottoman empires. The Russian Empire functioned as a monarchy until the Revolution of 1905. The empire collapsed during the February Revolution of 1917, largely as a result of failures in its participation in the First World War. Perhaps the latter was done to make Europe recognize Russia as more of a European country, Poland was divided in the 1790-1815 era, with much of the land and population going to Russia. Most of the 19th century growth came from adding territory in Asia, Peter I the Great introduced autocracy in Russia and played a major role in introducing his country to the European state system. However, this vast land had a population of 14 million, grain yields trailed behind those of agriculture in the West, compelling nearly the entire population to farm. Only a small percentage lived in towns, the class of kholops, close to the one of slavery, remained a major institution in Russia until 1723, when Peter I converted household kholops into house serfs, thus including them in poll taxation
7.
D. S. Mirsky
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He was born in Kharkov Governorate and died near Magadan. During his school years, he interested in the poetry of Russian symbolism. Mirsky saw service in the Russian army during World War I, Mirsky emigrated to Great Britain in 1921. While teaching Russian literature at the University of London, Mirsky published his landmark study A History of Russian Literature, vladimir Nabokov recommended it to his students as the best history of Russian literature in any language, including Russian. This work was followed with the Contemporary Russian Literature, 1881–1925, Mirsky was a founding member of the Eurasia Movement and the chief editor of the periodical Eurasia, his own views gradually evolving toward Marxism. He also is credited with coining the term National Bolshevism. In 1931, he joined the Communist Party of Great Britain, the permission to return to the USSR was granted him in 1932. On seeing him off to Russia, Virginia Woolf wrote in her diary that soon therell be a bullet through your head, Mirsky returned to Russia in September 1932. Five years later, during the Great Purge, Mirsky was arrested by the NKVD, mirsky’s arrest may have been caused by a chance meeting with his friend, the British historian E. H. Carr who visiting the Soviet Union in 1937. Carr stumbled into Prince Mirsky on the streets of Leningrad, and despite Prince Mirskys best efforts to not to know him. He died in one of the labor camps near Magadan in June 1939 and was buried on the 7th of that month. Although his magnum opus was published in Russia, Mirskys reputation in his native country remains sparse. Though he had very little money—hes a staunch democrat—he did inherit his well-born ancestors gourmandise and his stomach will be the ruin of him. Anthology of Russian poetry Modern Russian Literature Pushkin A History of Russian Literature, D. S. Mirsky, A Russian-English Life, 1890–1939. Nina Lavroukine et Leonid Tchertkov, D. S. Mirsky, profil critique et bibliographique, Paris, red Prince, a Radio Liberty publication
8.
Romantic interest
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Romance is the expressive and pleasurable feeling from an emotional attraction towards another person often associated with sexual attraction. It is eros rather than agape, philia, or storge, historically, the term romance originates with the medieval ideal of chivalry as set out in its chivalric romance literature. Humans have an inclination to form bonds with one another through social interactions. The debate over an exact definition of love may be found in literature as well as in the works of psychologists, philosophers, biochemists and other professionals. The addition of drama to relationships of close, deep and strong love, psychologist Charles Lindholm defined love to be. an intense attraction that involves the idealization of the other, within an erotic context, with expectation of enduring sometime into the future. The word was originally an adverb of the Latin origin Romanicus, the connecting notion is that European medieval vernacular tales were usually about chivalric adventure, not combining the idea of love until late into the seventeenth century. In primitive societies, tension existed between marriage and the erotic, but this was expressed in taboo regarding the menstrual cycle. Anthropologists such as Claude Lévi-Strauss show that there were forms of courtship in ancient as well as contemporary primitive societies. There may not be evidence, however, that members of such societies formed loving relationships distinct from their established customs in a way that would parallel modern romance, before the 18th century, many marriages were not arranged, but rather developed out of more or less spontaneous relationships. After the 18th century, illicit relationships took on an independent role. In bourgeois marriage, illicitness may have become more formidable and likely to cause tension, in Ladies of the Leisure Class, Rutgers University professor Bonnie G. Smith depicts courtship and marriage rituals that may be viewed as oppressive to modern people. She writes When the young women of the Nord married, they did so without illusions of love and they acted within a framework of concern for the reproduction of bloodlines according to financial, professional, and sometimes political interests. Subsequent sexual revolution has lessened the conflicts arising out of liberalism, anthony Giddens, in his book The Transformation of Intimacy, Sexuality, Love and Eroticism in Modern Society, states that romantic love introduced the idea of a narrative into an individuals life. He adds that telling a story was one of the meanings of romance, according to Giddens, the rise of romantic love more or less coincided with the emergence of the novel. It was then that romantic love, associated with freedom and therefore the ideals of romantic love, for the discourse of intimacy emotional closeness was much more important than passion. This does not mean by any means that intimacy is to replace romance, on the contrary, intimacy and romance coexist. The 21st century has seen the growth of globalization and people now live in a world of transformations that affect almost every aspect of our lives, one example of the changes experienced in relationships was explored by Giddens regarding homosexual relationships. According to Giddens since homosexuals were not able to marry they were forced to more open
9.
Nicholas I of Russia
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Nicholas I was the Emperor of Russia from 1825 until 1855. He was also the King of Poland and Grand Duke of Finland and his biographer Nicholas V. Riasanovsky says that Nicholas displayed determination, singleness of purpose, and an iron will, along with a powerful sense of duty and a dedication to very hard work. He saw himself as a junior officer totally consumed by spit. A handsome man, he was nervous and aggressive. Trained as an engineer, he was a stickler for minute detail, in his public persona, says Riasanovsky, Nicholas I came to represent autocracy personified, infinitely majestic, determined and powerful, hard as stone, and relentless as fate. His reign had an ideology called Official Nationality that was proclaimed officially in 1833 and it was a reactionary policy based on orthodoxy in religion, autocracy in government, and Russian nationalism. He was the brother of his predecessor, Alexander I. Nicholas inherited his brothers throne despite the failed Decembrist revolt against him and his aggressive foreign policy involved many expensive wars, having a disastrous effect on the empires finances. He was successful against Russias neighbouring southern rivals as he seized the last territories in the Caucasus held by Persia by successfully ending the Russo-Persian War and he ended the Russo-Turkish War successfully as well. Later on, however, he led Russia into the Crimean War with disastrous results, historians emphasize that his micromanagement of the armies hindered his generals, as did his misguided strategy. Fuller notes that historians have concluded that the reign of Nicholas I was a catastrophic failure in both domestic and foreign policy. On the eve of his death, the Russian Empire reached its zenith, spanning over 20 million square kilometers. Nicholas was born at Gatchina Palace in Gatchina to Grand Duke Paul, five months after his birth, his grandmother, Catherine the Great, died and his parents became emperor and empress of Russia. He was a brother of Emperor Alexander I of Russia, who succeeded to the throne in 1801. Riasanovsky says he was, the most handsome man in Europe, Nicholas was not brought up to become the Emperor of Russia, he had two elder brothers. However, as both of them failed to produce sons, Nicholas remained second in the line of succession, in 1825, when Alexander I died suddenly of typhus, Nicholas was caught between swearing allegiance to his second-eldest brother, Constantine Pavlovich, and accepting the throne for himself. The interregnum lasted until Constantine, who was in Warsaw at that time, additionally, on 25 December, Nicholas issued the manifesto proclaiming his accession to the throne. That manifesto retroactively named 1 December, the date of Alexander Is death, during this confusion, a plot was hatched by some members of the military to overthrow Nicholas and to seize power
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Mikhail Shchepkin
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Mikhail Semyonovich Shchepkin was the most famous Russian Empire actor of the 19th century. He is considered the father of realist acting in Russia and, via the influence of his student, Glikeriya Fedotova, Shchepkins significance to the Theatre of Russia is comparable to that of David Garrick to the English theatre. Shchepkin considered the effect of the latter approach superior to that of the former and he was opposed to the principles advanced by the French playwright and philosopher Denis Diderot in his Paradox of the Actor, which inverted Shchepkins evaluation. Shchepkin was born in the village of Krasnoe, in the Kursk Province of the Russian Empire, Shchepkins freedom had to be bought by his admirers in 1821. Three years later, he joined the Maly Theatre in Moscow, Shchepkin was the first to play Famusov in the Woe from Wit and the Mayor in The Government Inspector. His acting was acclaimed by Alexander Pushkin, Nikolai Gogol, Alexander Herzen, tatiana Shchepkina-Kupernik, his granddaughter Banham, Martin, ed.1998. The Art of the Actor, The Essential History of Acting, theories of the Theatre, A Historical and Critical Survey from the Greeks to the Present. Expanded ed. Ithaca and London, Cornell University Press, serf Actor, The Life and Art of Mikhail Shchepkin. Shchepkin, A Founding Father of the Russian theater, archived from the original on November 12,2005
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Censorship
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Governments, private organizations and individuals may engage in censorship. When an individual such as an author or other creator engages in censorship of their own works or speech, Censorship could be direct or indirect, in which case it is referred to as soft censorship. Direct censorship may or may not be legal, depending on the type, location, there are no laws against self-censorship. In 399 BC, Greek philosopher, Socrates, defied attempts by the Greek state to censor his philosophical teachings and was sentenced to death by drinking a poison, hemlock. Socrates student, Plato, is said to have advocated censorship in his essay on The Republic, in contrast to Plato, Greek playwright Euripides defended the true liberty of freeborn men, including the right to speak freely. In 1766, Sweden became the first country to abolish censorship by law, the rationale for censorship is different for various types of information censored, Moral censorship is the removal of materials that are obscene or otherwise considered morally questionable. Pornography, for example, is often censored under this rationale, especially child pornography, Military censorship is the process of keeping military intelligence and tactics confidential and away from the enemy. This is used to counter espionage, which is the process of gleaning military information, political censorship occurs when governments hold back information from their citizens. This is often done to control over the populace and prevent free expression that might foment rebellion. Religious censorship is the means by which any material considered objectionable by a religion is removed. This often involves a dominant religion forcing limitations on less prevalent ones, alternatively, one religion may shun the works of another when they believe the content is not appropriate for their religion. Strict censorship existed in the Eastern Bloc, throughout the bloc, the various ministries of culture held a tight rein on their writers. Cultural products there reflected the needs of the state. Party-approved censors exercised strict control in the early years, in the Stalinist period, even the weather forecasts were changed if they suggested that the sun might not shine on May Day. Under Nicolae Ceauşescu in Romania, weather reports were doctored so that the temperatures were not seen to rise above or fall below the levels which dictated that work must stop. Independent journalism did not exist in the Soviet Union until Mikhail Gorbachev became its leader, pravda, the predominant newspaper in the Soviet Union, had a monopoly. Foreign newspapers were available if they were published by Communist Parties sympathetic to the Soviet Union. Possession and use of copying machines was tightly controlled in order to hinder production and distribution of samizdat, illegal self-published books, possession of even a single samizdat manuscript such as a book by Andrei Sinyavsky was a serious crime which might involve a visit from the KGB
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Saint Petersburg
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Saint Petersburg is Russias second-largest city after Moscow, with five million inhabitants in 2012, and an important Russian port on the Baltic Sea. It is politically incorporated as a federal subject, situated on the Neva River, at the head of the Gulf of Finland on the Baltic Sea, it was founded by Tsar Peter the Great on May 271703. In 1914, the name was changed from Saint Petersburg to Petrograd, in 1924 to Leningrad, between 1713 and 1728 and 1732–1918, Saint Petersburg was the capital of imperial Russia. In 1918, the government bodies moved to Moscow. Saint Petersburg is one of the cities of Russia, as well as its cultural capital. The Historic Centre of Saint Petersburg and Related Groups of Monuments constitute a UNESCO World Heritage Site, Saint Petersburg is home to The Hermitage, one of the largest art museums in the world. A large number of consulates, international corporations, banks. Swedish colonists built Nyenskans, a fortress, at the mouth of the Neva River in 1611, in a then called Ingermanland. A small town called Nyen grew up around it, Peter the Great was interested in seafaring and maritime affairs, and he intended to have Russia gain a seaport in order to be able to trade with other maritime nations. He needed a better seaport than Arkhangelsk, which was on the White Sea to the north, on May 1703121703, during the Great Northern War, Peter the Great captured Nyenskans, and soon replaced the fortress. On May 271703, closer to the estuary 5 km inland from the gulf), on Zayachy Island, he laid down the Peter and Paul Fortress, which became the first brick and stone building of the new city. The city was built by conscripted peasants from all over Russia, tens of thousands of serfs died building the city. Later, the city became the centre of the Saint Petersburg Governorate, Peter moved the capital from Moscow to Saint Petersburg in 1712,9 years before the Treaty of Nystad of 1721 ended the war, he referred to Saint Petersburg as the capital as early as 1704. During its first few years, the city developed around Trinity Square on the bank of the Neva, near the Peter. However, Saint Petersburg soon started to be built out according to a plan, by 1716 the Swiss Italian Domenico Trezzini had elaborated a project whereby the city centre would be located on Vasilyevsky Island and shaped by a rectangular grid of canals. The project was not completed, but is evident in the layout of the streets, in 1716, Peter the Great appointed French Jean-Baptiste Alexandre Le Blond as the chief architect of Saint Petersburg. In 1724 the Academy of Sciences, University and Academic Gymnasium were established in Saint Petersburg by Peter the Great, in 1725, Peter died at the age of fifty-two. His endeavours to modernize Russia had met opposition from the Russian nobility—resulting in several attempts on his life
13.
Old Believers
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Old Believers continue liturgical practices that the Russian Orthodox Church had maintained before the implementation of these reforms. Russian speakers refer to the schism itself as raskol, etymologically indicating a cleaving-apart, in 1652, Patriarch Nikon introduced a number of ritual and textual revisions with the aim of achieving uniformity between the practices of the Russian and Greek Orthodox churches. Nikon, having noticed discrepancies between Russian and Greek rites and texts, ordered an adjustment of the Russian rites to align with the Greek ones of his time. In doing so, according to the Old Believers, Nikon acted without consultation with the clergy. Those who maintained fidelity to the existing rite endured severe persecutions from the end of the 17th century until the beginning of the 20th century as Schismatics and they became known as Old Ritualists, a name introduced during the reign of Catherine the Great. They continued to call themselves simply Orthodox Christians, by the middle of the 17th century, Greek and Russian Church officials, including Patriarch Nikon of Moscow, had noticed discrepancies between contemporary Russian and Greek usages. Thus, the Russian Orthodox Church had become dissonant from the other Orthodox churches, later research was to vindicate the Muscovite service-books as belonging to a different Greek recension from that which was used by the Greeks at the time of Nikon. The unrevised Muscovite books proved to be older than the current Greek books, which had been revised over the centuries, were newer, and contained innovations. Nikon wanted to have the rite in the Russian tsardom and in majority-ethnic Slavic lands, then part of Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth. Their rite was closer to the Greek than that in the Moscow duchy, Nikon did not want to adopt two different rites in the same church. Supported by Tsar Alexis, Nikon carried out some preliminary liturgical reforms, in 1652, he convened a synod and exhorted the clergy on the need to compare Russian Typikon, Euchologion, and other liturgical books with their Greek counterparts. Monasteries from all over Russia received requests to send examples to Moscow in order to have subjected to a comparative analysis. Some scholars allege that the visiting patriarchs each received both 20,000 rubles in gold and furs for their participation and this council officially established the reforms and anathematized not only all those opposing the innovations, but the old Russian books and rites themselves as well. As a side-effect of condemning the past of the Russian Orthodox Church and her traditions, instead of the guardian of Orthodox faith, Moscow seemed an accumulation of serious liturgical mistakes. The numerous changes in both texts and rites occupied approximately 400 pages, the authorities imposed the reforms in an autocratic fashion, with no consultation of the subject people. Those who reacted against the Nikonian reforms would have objected as much to the manner of imposition as to the alterations, in addition, changes often were made arbitrarily in the texts. For example, wherever the books read Христосъ, Nikons assistants substituted Сынъ, another example is that wherever the books read Церковь, Nikon substituted Храмъ and vice versa. The protest was indeed global, the episcopate, the clergy, opponents of the ecclesiastical reforms of Nikon emerged among all strata of the people and in relatively large numbers
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Siberia
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Siberia is an extensive geographical region, and by the broadest definition is also known as North Asia. Siberia has historically been a part of Russia since the 17th century, the territory of Siberia extends eastwards from the Ural Mountains to the watershed between the Pacific and Arctic drainage basins. It stretches southwards from the Arctic Ocean to the hills of north-central Kazakhstan and to the borders of Mongolia. With an area of 13.1 million square kilometres, Siberia accounts for 77% of Russias land area and this is equivalent to an average population density of about 3 inhabitants per square kilometre, making Siberia one of the most sparsely populated regions on Earth. If it were a country by itself, it would still be the largest country in area, the origin of the name is unknown. Some sources say that Siberia originates from the Siberian Tatar word for sleeping land, another account sees the name as the ancient tribal ethnonym of the Sirtya, a folk, which spoke a language that later evolved into the Ugric languages. This ethnic group was assimilated to the Siberian Tatar people. The modern usage of the name was recorded in the Russian language after the Empires conquest of the Siberian Khanate, a further variant claims that the region was named after the Xibe people. The Polish historian Chycliczkowski has proposed that the name derives from the word for north. He said that the neighbouring Chinese, Arabs and Mongolians would not have known Russian and he suggests that the name is a combination of two words, su and bir. The region is of significance, as it contains bodies of prehistoric animals from the Pleistocene Epoch. Specimens of Goldfuss cave lion cubs, Yuka and another woolly mammoth from Oymyakon, a rhinoceros from the Kolyma River. The Siberian Traps were formed by one of the largest known volcanic events of the last 500 million years of Earths geological history. They continued for a million years and are considered a cause of the Great Dying about 250 million years ago. At least three species of human lived in Southern Siberia around 40,000 years ago, H. sapiens, H. neanderthalensis, the last was determined in 2010, by DNA evidence, to be a new species. Siberia was inhabited by different groups of such as the Enets, the Nenets, the Huns, the Scythians. The Khan of Sibir in the vicinity of modern Tobolsk was known as a prominent figure who endorsed Kubrat as Khagan of Old Great Bulgaria in 630, the Mongols conquered a large part of this area early in the 13th century. With the breakup of the Golden Horde, the autonomous Khanate of Sibir was established in the late 15th century, turkic-speaking Yakut migrated north from the Lake Baikal region under pressure from the Mongol tribes during the 13th to 15th century
15.
Valet
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Valet and varlet are terms for male servants who serve as personal attendants to their employer. In the United States, the term most often refers to a parking valet, in English, valet as personal man-servant is recorded since 1567, though use of the term in the French-speaking English medieval court is older, and the variant form varlet is cited from 1456. See yeoman, possibly derived from man, a related term. The modern use is usually short for the valet de chambre, since the 16th century, the word has traditionally been pronounced as rhyming with pallet, though an alternative pronunciation, rhyming with chalet, as in French, is now common. The Oxford English Dictionary lists both pronunciations as valid, a valet or gentlemans gentleman is a gentlemans male servant, the closest female equivalent is a ladys maid. The valet performs personal services such as maintaining his employers clothes, running his bath and perhaps shaving his employer. In a great house, the master of the house had his own valet, in a bachelors household the valet might perform light housekeeping duties as well. Valets learned the skills for their role in various ways, others started out as soldier-servants to army officers or stewards to naval officers. Traditionally, a valet did much more than lay out clothes. He was also responsible for making travel arrangements, dealing with any bills, Alexandre Bontemps, the most senior of the thirty-six valets to Louis XIV of France, was a powerful figure, who ran the Château de Versailles. In courts, valet de chambre was a position of status, often given to artists, musicians, poets and others. The role was also, at least during the late Middle Ages and the Renaissance, valets, like butlers and most specialized domestic staff, have become relatively rare. A more common, though infrequent, arrangement is the general servant performing combined roles. Alfred Pennyworth, valet to Bruce Wayne, created by Bob Kane, hobson, from the comedy film Arthur. Kato, Inspector Clouseaus valet and martial arts partner in the Pink Panther movies, passepartout, in the 1872 novel Around the World in Eighty Days by Jules Verne. George, created by Agatha Christie in the Hercule Poirot novels, edward Henry Masterman, the victims valet and a suspect in Agatha Christies Murder on the Orient Express. Figaro, the Count of Almavivas valet from Beaumarchais play The Marriage of Figaro, as well as the Mozart, leporello, valet of Don Giovanni in the opera by Mozart. Giles French in the sitcom Family Affair, probert, valet to Sir William McCordle, and Robert Parks, valet to Lord Stockbridge, in the 2001 film Gosford Park, directed by Robert Altman
16.
Ruble
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The ruble or rouble is or was a currency unit of a number of countries in Eastern Europe closely associated with the economy of Russia. Originally, the ruble was the unit of Imperial Russia and then the Soviet Union. The Russian ruble is used in the partially recognised states of Abkhazia. In the past, several other countries influenced by Russia and the Soviet Union had currency units that were also named rubles, one ruble is divided into 100 kopeks. According to one version, the ruble is derived from the Russian verb рубить, to cut, to chop, to hack. Rubles were parts of the grivna or pieces of silver with notches indicating their weight, each grivna was divided into four parts, the name ruble came from the word cut because the silver rod weighing 1 grivna was split into four parts, which were called rubles. Another version of the origin is that it comes from the Russian noun рубец. Therefore, the word means a cast with a seam. A popular theory deriving word ruble from rupee is probably not correct, the ruble was the Russian equivalent of the mark, a measurement of weight for silver and gold used in medieval Western Europe. The weight of one ruble was equal to the weight of one grivna, in Russian, a folk name for ruble, tselkovyj, is known, which is a shortening of the целковый рубль, i. e. a wholesome, uncut ruble. This name persists in the Mordvin word for ruble, целковой, the word kopek, kopeck, copeck, or kopeyka is a diminutive form of the Russian kopyo — a spear. The first kopek coins, minted at Novgorod and Pskov from about 1534 onwards, from the 1540s onwards the horseman bears a crown, and doubtless the intention was to represent Ivan the Terrible, who was Grand Prince of all Russia until 1547, and Tsar thereafter. Subsequent mintings of the coin, starting in the 18th century, since the monetary reform of 1534, one Russian accounting ruble became equivalent to 100 silver Novgorod denga coins or smaller 200 Muscovite denga coins or even smaller 400 polushka coins. Exactly the former coin with a rider on it became colloquially known as kopek and was the higher coin until the beginning of the 18th century. Ruble coins as such did not exist till Peter the Great, apart from one ruble and one kopek coins other smaller and greater coins existed as well. Both the spellings ruble and rouble are used in English, the form rouble is preferred by the Oxford English Dictionary, but the earliest use recorded in English is the now completely obsolete robble. The form rouble probably derives from the transliteration into French used among the Tsarist aristocracy, the Russian plurals that may be seen on the actual currency are modified according to Russian grammar. Numbers 1,21,31 etc. are followed by nominative singular рубль, numbers 2–4, 22–24, 32–34 etc. will be followed by genitive singular рубля, копейки
17.
Fourth wall
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The fourth wall is a performance convention in which an invisible, imagined wall separates actors from the audience. While the audience can see through this wall, the convention assumes, the metaphor suggests a relationship to the mise-en-scène behind a proscenium arch. When a scene is set indoors and three of the walls of its room are presented onstage, in what is known as a box set, the fourth wall, though, is a convention of acting, rather than of set design. Breaking the fourth wall is any instance in which this performance convention and this can be done through either directly referencing the audience or the work they are in, or referencing their fictionality. The temporary suspension of the convention in this way draws attention to its use in the rest of the performance and this act of drawing attention to a plays performance conventions is metatheatrical. The phrase breaking the wall is used to describe such effects in those media. Breaking the fourth wall is also possible in other media, such as video games, the concept is usually attributed to the philosopher, critic and dramatist Denis Diderot. The term itself was used by Molière, one play that uses the fourth wall extensively for comedic effect is The Complete Works of William Shakespeare. Critic Vincent Canby described it in 1987 as that invisible scrim that forever separates the audience from the stage, oliver Hardy was probably the first to break the fourth wall, in his movies with Stan Laurel, by staring at the camera to seek comprehension from the viewers. Groucho Marx spoke directly to the audience in Animal Crackers,1930, woody Allen broke the fourth wall several times in his movie Annie Hall, as he explained, because I felt many of the people in the audience had the same feelings and the same problems. I wanted to talk to them directly and confront them, the John Hughes movie Ferris Buellers Day Off is another well-known fourth-wall-breaking movie. Bueller, played by Matthew Broderick, often turns to the camera, in the Mel Brooks film Blazing Saddles, the characters literally break the fourth wall. Breaking the fourth wall is an part of the ending of Alejandro Jodorowskys 1973 film The Holy Mountain. More recent examples include the 2016 film Deadpool, in which it is used as a device between the main character and the audience. On television, breaking the wall is rare, though it has been done throughout the history of the medium. George Burns did it numerous times on The George Burns and Gracie Allen Show he starred in with his real-life wife Gracie Allen from 1950 to 1958. Its Garry Shandlings Show and Mrs. Browns Boys both have their title character walking between sets mid-scene, and the latter occasionally shows characters retaking fluffed lines. Another television character who breaks the fourth wall is Francis Urquhart in the British TV drama series House of Cards, To Play the King
18.
Vsevolod Meyerhold
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Vsevolod Emilevich Meyerhold was a Russian and Soviet theatre director, actor and theatrical producer. His provocative experiments dealing with physical being and symbolism in a theatre setting made him one of the seminal forces in modern international theatre. During the Great Purge, Meyerhold was arrested, tortured and executed in February 1940 and he was the youngest of eight children. After completing school in 1895, Meiergold studied law at Moscow University and he was torn between studying theatre or a career as a violinist. However, he failed his audition to become the second violinist in the University orchestra, on his 21st birthday, he converted from Lutheranism to Orthodox Christianity and accepted Vsevolod as an Orthodox Christian name. Meyerhold began acting in 1896 as a student of the Moscow Philharmonic Dramatic School under the guidance of Vladimir Nemirovich-Danchenko, co-founder of the Moscow Art Theatre. At the MAT, Meyerhold played 18 roles, such as Vasiliy Shuiskiy in Tsar Fyodor Ioannovich and Ivan the Terrible in The Death of Ivan the Terrible, after leaving the MAT in 1902, Meyerhold participated in a number of theatrical projects, as both a director and actor. Each project was an arena for experiment and creation of new staging methods, Meyerhold was one of the most fervent advocates of Symbolism in theatre, especially when he worked as the chief producer of the Vera Komissarzhevskaya theatre in 1906–1907. He was invited back to the MAT around this time to pursue his experimental ideas, Meyerhold continued theatrical innovation during the decade 1907–1917, while working with the imperial theatres in St. Petersburg. He introduced classical plays in a manner, and staged works of controversial contemporary authors like Fyodor Sologub, Zinaida Gippius. In these plays, Meyerhold tried to return acting to the traditions of Commedia dellarte and his theoretical concepts of the conditional theatre were elaborated in his book On Theatre in 1913. The Russian Revolution of 1917 made Meyerhold one of the most enthusiastic activists of the new Soviet Theatre and he joined the Bolshevik Party in 1918 and became an official of the Theatre Division of the Commissariat of Education and Enlightenment. In 1918–1919, Meyerhold formed an alliance with Olga Kameneva, the head of the Division, together, they tried to radicalize Russian theatres, effectively nationalizing them under Bolshevik control. Meyerhold came down with tuberculosis in May 1919 and had to leave for the south, after returning to Moscow, Meyerhold founded his own theatre in 1920, which was known from 1923 as the Meyerhold Theatre until 1938. Meyerhold confronted the principles of theatrical academism, claiming that they are incapable of finding a common language with the new reality, Meyerhold’s methods of scenic constructivism and circus-style effects were used in his most successful works of the time. Some of these works included Nikolai Erdmans The Mandate, Vladimir Mayakovsky’s Mystery-Bouffe, Fernand Crommelyncks Le Cocu magnifique, mayakovsky collaborated with Meyerhold several times, and was said to have written The Bedbug especially for him, Meyerhold continued to stage Mayakovskys productions even after the latters suicide. The actors participating in Meyerhold’s productions acted according to the principle of biomechanics, Meyerhold gave initial boosts to the stage careers of some of the most distinguished comic actors of the USSR, including Sergey Martinson, Igor Ilyinsky and Erast Garin. Energy was replaced by trance, the dynamic with the static, happy jesting humour with bitter, Meyerhold also gave a start to his one time assistant of The Queen of Spades Matvey Dubrovin, who later created his own theater in Leningrad
19.
Erast Garin
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Erast Pavlovich Garin was, together with Igor Ilyinsky and Sergey Martinson, one of the leading comic actors of Vsevolod Meyerholds company and of the Soviet cinema. He was named Peoples Artist of the USSR in 1977, Garin was born in Ryazan as Erast Gerasimov. He started his career in 1919 in an amateur theatre of the Ryazan military district. In 1926 he finished his education in the experimental theatrical workshops of the Peoples Commissariat for Education, Garin worked with Meyerhold in his theatre until its dissolution in 1936. Among his triumphs was the part of Khlestakov in the 1926 production of The Government Inspector, the trance-like quality of his grotesquely anxious performances in Meyerholds productions could be attributed to an expressionistic acting style. Nikolay Akimovs Theatre of Comedy was the theatre he worked in. In 1946 he gave up stage performances and concentrated on film acting, in 1941 he was awarded the Stalin Prize for the role of Tarakanov in the film Musical Story. Half-blindness prevented him from playing any major roles in the 1960s and 1970s, together with his wife Khesya Lokshina he was director of several films, for which he also contributed scripts. They adapted Mikhail Zoshchenkos novel Respected Comrade in 1930, garins memoirs, entitled With Meyerhold, appeared in 1974
20.
E. T. A. Hoffmann
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Ernst Theodor Amadeus Hoffmann was a Prussian Romantic author of fantasy and Gothic horror, a jurist, composer, music critic, draftsman and caricaturist. His stories form the basis of Jacques Offenbachs famous opera The Tales of Hoffmann and he is also the author of the novella The Nutcracker and the Mouse King, on which Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovskys ballet The Nutcracker is based. The ballet Coppélia is based on two stories that Hoffmann wrote, while Schumanns Kreisleriana is based on Hoffmanns character Johannes Kreisler. Hoffmanns stories highly influenced 19th century literature, and he is one of the authors of the Romantic movement. Hoffmanns ancestors, both maternal and paternal, were jurists and his father, Christoph Ludwig Hoffmann, was a barrister in Königsberg, Prussia, as well as a poet and amateur musician who played the viola da gamba. In 1767 he married his cousin, Lovisa Albertina Doerffer, ernst Theodor Wilhelm, born on 24 January 1776, was the youngest of three children, of whom the second died in infancy. The household, dominated by the uncle, was pietistic and uncongenial, Hoffmann was to regret his estrangement from his father. Nevertheless, he remembered his aunts with great affection, especially the younger, Charlotte, between 1781 and 1792 he attended the Lutheran school or Burgschule, where he made good progress in classics. He was taught drawing by one Saemann, and counterpoint by a Polish organist named Podbileski, ernst showed great talent for piano-playing, and busied himself with writing and drawing. He had however read Schiller, Goethe, Swift, Sterne, Rousseau and Jean Paul, and wrote part of a novel titled Der Geheimnisvolle. Around 1787 he became friends with Theodor Gottlieb von Hippel the Younger, the son of a pastor, and nephew of Theodor Gottlieb von Hippel the Elder, during 1792, both attended some of Kants lectures at the University of Königsberg. Their friendship, although tested by an increasing social difference, was to be lifelong. In 1794, Hoffmann became enamored of Cora Hatt, a woman to whom he had given music lessons. She was ten years older, and in 1795 gave birth to her sixth child, in February 1796, her family protested against his attentions and, with his hesitant consent, asked another of his uncles to arrange employment for him in Glogau, Prussian Silesia. From 1796 Hoffmann obtained employment as a clerk for his uncle, Johann Ludwig Doerffer, after passing further examinations he visited Dresden, where he was amazed by the paintings in the gallery, particularly those of Correggio and Raphael. During the summer of 1798 his uncle was promoted to a court in Berlin, and it was there that Hoffmann first attempted to promote himself as a composer, writing an operetta called Die Maske and sending a copy to Queen Luise of Prussia. The official reply advised to him to write to the director of the Royal Theatre, from June 1800 to 1803 he worked in Prussian provinces in the area of Greater Poland and Masovia. This was the first time he had lived without supervision by members of his family, and he started to become what school principals, parsons, uncles, and aunts call dissolute
21.
Andrei Bely
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Boris Nikolaevich Bugaev, better known by the pen name Andrei Bely, was a Russian novelist, poet, theorist, and literary critic. His novel Petersburg was regarded by Vladimir Nabokov as one of the four greatest novels of the 20th century, Boris Bugaev was born in Moscow, into a prominent intellectual family. His father, Nikolai Bugaev, was a mathematician who is regarded as a founder of the Moscow school of mathematics. His mother was not only highly intelligent but a society beauty. Young Boris was a polymath whose interests included mathematics, biology, chemistry, music, philosophy and he would go on to take part in both the Symbolist movement and the Russian school of neo-Kantianism. Bugaev became friendly with Alexander Blok and his wife, he fell in love with her, Nikolai Bugaev was well known for his influential philosophical essays, in which he decried geometry and probability and trumpeted the virtues of hard analysis. Despite—or because of—his fathers mathematical tastes, Boris Bugaev was fascinated by probability and particularly by entropy and it was Mikhail Solovyov who gave Bugaev his pseudonym Andrei Bely. Belys symbolist novel Petersburg is generally considered to be his masterpiece, the book employs a striking prose method in which sounds often evoke colors. The novel is set in the hysterical atmosphere of turn-of-the-century Petersburg. At one point, Nikolai is pursued through the Petersburg mists by the hooves of the famous bronze statue of Peter the Great. In his later years Bely was influenced by Rudolf Steiner’s anthroposophy and he spent time between Switzerland, Germany, and Russia, during its revolution. He supported the Bolshevik rise to power and later dedicated his efforts to Soviet culture and he died, aged 53, in Moscow. Bely was one of the influences on the theater of Vsevolod Meyerhold. The Andrei Bely Prize, one of the most important prizes in Russian literature, was named after him, fyodor, poet and main character, praises the system Bely created for graphically marking off and calculating the half-stresses in the iambs. Bely found that the diagrams plotted over the compositions of the great poets frequently had the shapes of rectangles, nabokovs essay Notes on Prosody follows for the large part Belys essay Description of the Russian iambic tetrameter. Robert A. Maguire and John E. Malmstad, Indiana University Press,1978, the Silver Dove George Reavey, Grove Press,1974. John Elsworth, Northwestern University Press,2001, Kotik Letaev Gerald Janecek, Ardis,1971. The Complete Short Stories Ronald E. Peterson, Ardis,1979, selected Essays of Andrey Bely Steven Cassedy, University of California Press,1985
22.
Grotesque
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In art, performance, and literature, however, grotesque may also refer to something that simultaneously invokes in an audience a feeling of uncomfortable bizarreness as well as sympathetic pity. More specifically, the forms on Gothic buildings, when not used as drain-spouts, should not be called gargoyles. The word first was used of paintings found on the walls of basements of Roman ruins that were called at that time Le Grotte due to their appearance. Spreading from Italian to the other European languages, the term was used largely interchangeably with arabesque and moresque for types of decorative patterns using curving foliage elements. Rémi Astruc has argued that there is an immense variety of motifs and figures. Beyond the current understanding of the grotesque as an aesthetic category, moreover, Astruc identifies the grotesque as a crucial, and potentially universal, anthropological device that societies have used to conceptualize alterity and change. Such designs were fashionable in ancient Rome, as fresco wall decoration, floor mosaics, the Roman wall decorations in fresco and delicate stucco were a revelation. The first appearance of the word appears in a contract of 1502 for the Piccolomini Library attached to the duomo of Siena. Light scrolling grotesques could be ordered by confining them within the framing of a pilaster to give them more structure, giovanni da Udine took up the theme of grotesques in decorating the Villa Madama, the most influential of the new Roman villas. In the 16th century, such artistic license and irrationality was controversial matter, more familiar material for grotesques could be drawn from Ovids Metamorphoses. This large array provided a repertoire of elements that were the basis for later artists across Europe, counter Reformation writers on the arts, notably Cardinal Gabriele Paleotti, bishop of Bologna, turned upon grottesche with a righteous vengeance. Vasari, echoing Vitruvius, described the style as follows, Grotesques are a type of extremely licentious, other 16th-century writers on grottesche included Daniele Barbaro, Pirro Ligorio and Gian Paolo Lomazzo. In the meantime, through the medium of engravings the grotesque mode of surface ornament passed into the European artistic repertory of the 16th century, from Spain to Poland. Later Mannerist versions, especially in engraving, tended to lose that initial lightness and be more densely filled than the airy well-spaced style used by the Romans. Soon grottesche appeared in marquetry, in maiolica produced above all at Urbino from the late 1520s, then in book illustration, in the 17th and 18th centuries the grotesque encompasses a wide field of teratology and artistic experimentation. The monstrous, for instance, often occurs as the notion of play, the sportiveness of the grotesque category can be seen in the notion of the preternatural category of the lusus naturae, in natural history writings and in cabinets of curiosities. The last vestiges of romance, such as the marvellous also provide opportunities for the presentation of the grotesque in, for instance, the mixed form of the novel was commonly described as grotesque - see for instance Fieldings comic epic poem in prose. Grotesque ornament received an impetus from new discoveries of original Roman frescoes and stucchi at Pompeii
23.
Vlasta Burian
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Josef Vlastimil Burian, better known as Vlasta Burian, was a Czech stage and film actor, singer, comedian, footballer and film director. In the Czech Republic, he is known as Král komiků and he is well known in the Czech Republic for his comic roles in many movies before and during World War II. His films are shown regularly on Czech television, being particularly popular around Christmas time. He ran a popular comic theater until 1944, when the Nazis closed down all Czech-language theaters, after the war Burian was charged and convincted of collaboration with the Nazis. He was briefly imprisoned, and then not permitted to return to the stage until 1950 and he was officially exonerated of all charges in 1994. Biography Vlasta Burian at the Internet Movie Database Photographs of Vlasta Burian
24.
The Inspector General (film)
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The Inspector General is a 1949 Technicolor musical comedy film. It stars Danny Kaye and was directed by Henry Koster, the film also stars Walter Slezak, Gene Lockhart, Barbara Bates, Elsa Lanchester, Alan Hale Sr. and Rhys Williams. Original music by Sylvia Fine and Johnny Green, the film is loosely based on Nikolai Gogols play The Inspector General. The plot is re-located from the Russian Empire into an unspecified corrupted region of a country that suddenly finds itself under the supervision of the First French Empire. Georgi, a member of a wandering band of Gypsies led by Yakov escapes from a travelling medicine show after he innocently lets slip that the elixir theyre selling is a fraud. The band of officials and the want to protect their town and their lives, so. They mistake Georgi for the Inspector and ply him with food, Yakov wanders into the small town and convinces Georgi to stay on as an inspector general and accept the bribes the officials so willingly throw at him. Of course, Yakov wants to seize Georgis misfortune and turn it into a new start for his own life, however Georgi has fallen in love with a servant and wishes to marry her. Naturally, their plans go awry and Georgi, despite his innocence, and when the real Inspector arrives suddenly, he also realizes that Georgi is the most honest fellow hes met since leaving Budapest. The Inspector General names Georgi the new Mayor of Brodny and presents him the gold chain, having taken it from the old mayor saying. Yakov becomes the new chief of police and Georgi gets the girl of his dreams, kayes wife Sylvia Fine wrote the original songs The Inspector General and Happy Times, both sung by Kaye in the film. Happy Times was, in fact, the title of the film. The Inspector General is one of a number of major Hollywood productions from the 1940s and 1950s that have lapsed into the domain in the United States. The last copyright holder was United Artists Television
25.
Musical comedy
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Musical theatre is a form of theatrical performance that combines songs, spoken dialogue, acting, and dance. The story and emotional content of a musical – humor, pathos, love, anger – are communicated through the words, music, movement, since the early 20th century, musical theatre stage works have generally been called, simply, musicals. These were followed by the numerous Edwardian musical comedies and the theatre works of American creators like George M. Cohan. Musicals are performed around the world and they may be presented in large venues, such as big-budget Broadway or West End productions in New York City or London. Alternatively, musicals may be staged in smaller fringe theatre, Off-Broadway or regional theatre productions, musicals are often presented by amateur and school groups in churches, schools and other performance spaces. In addition to the United States and Britain, there are vibrant musical theatre scenes in continental Europe, Asia, Australasia, Canada, the three main components of a book musical are its music, lyrics and book. The interpretation of a musical is the responsibility of its team, which includes a director. A musicals production is also characterized by technical aspects, such as set design, costumes, stage properties, lighting. The creative team, designs and interpretations generally change from the production to succeeding productions. Some production elements, however, may be retained from the production, for example. There is no fixed length for a musical, while it can range from a short one-act entertainment to several acts and several hours in length, most musicals range from one and a half to three hours. Musicals are usually presented in two acts, with one intermission, and the first act is frequently longer than the second. A book musical is usually built four to six main theme tunes that are reprised later in the show. Several shorter musicals on Broadway and in the West End have been presented in one act in recent decades, moments of greatest dramatic intensity in a book musical are often performed in song. Proverbially, when the emotion becomes too strong for speech, you sing, typically, many fewer words are sung in a five-minute song than are spoken in a five-minute block of dialogue. Therefore, there is time to develop drama in a musical than in a straight play of equivalent length. Within the compressed nature of a musical, the writers must develop the characters, the material presented in a musical may be original, or it may be adapted from novels, plays, classic legends, historical events or films. On the other hand, many musical theatre works have been adapted for musical films, such as West Side Story, My Fair Lady, The Sound of Music, Oliver
26.
Danny Kaye
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David Daniel Kaminsky, better known by his screen name Danny Kaye, was an American actor, singer, dancer, comedian, and musician. His performances featured physical comedy, idiosyncratic pantomimes, and rapid-fire novelty songs, Kaye starred in 17 movies, notably Wonder Man, The Kid from Brooklyn, The Secret Life of Walter Mitty, The Inspector General, Hans Christian Andersen, White Christmas, and The Court Jester. His films were popular, especially his performances of songs and favorites such as Inchworm. He was the first ambassador-at-large of UNICEF in 1954 and received the French Legion of Honour in 1986 for his years of work with the organization, david Daniel Kaminsky was born to Ukrainian Jewish immigrants in Brooklyn on January 18,1911. Kaye was the youngest of three born to Jacob and Clara Nemerovsky Kaminsky. Jacob and Clara and their two sons, Larry and Mac, left Dnipropetrovsk two years before his birth, he was the son born in the United States. His mother died when he was in his early teens, not long after his mothers death, Kaye and his friend Louis ran away to Florida. Kaye sang while Louis played the guitar, the pair eked out a living for a while, when Kaye returned to New York, his father did not pressure him to return to school or work, giving his son the chance to mature and discover his own abilities. Kaye said that as a boy he had wanted to be a surgeon. He held a succession of jobs after leaving school, as a jerk, insurance investigator. Most ended with his being fired and he lost the insurance job when he made an error that cost the insurance company $40,000. The dentist who hired him to look after his office at lunch hour did the same when he found Kaye using his drill on the office woodwork and he learned his trade in his teenage years in the Catskills as a tummler in the Borscht Belt. Kayes first break came in 1933 when he joined the Three Terpsichoreans and they opened in Utica, New York, where he used the name Danny Kaye for the first time. The act toured the United States, then performed in Asia with the show La Vie Paree, the troupe left for a six-month tour of the Far East on February 8,1934. While they were in Osaka, Japan, a hit the city. The hotel where Kaye and his colleagues stayed suffered heavy damage, the strong wind hurled a piece of the hotels cornice into Kayes room, had he been hit, he might well have been killed. By performance time that evening, the city was in the grip of the storm, there was no power, and the audience was restless and nervous. To calm them, Kaye went on stage, holding a flashlight to illuminate his face, the experience of trying to entertain audiences who did not speak English inspired him to the pantomime, gestures, songs, and facial expressions that eventually made his reputation
27.
Inspector general
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An inspector general is an investigative official in a civil or military organization. The plural of the term is inspectors general, the chief of police of Bangladesh is known as the inspector general of police. He is from the Bangladesh Civil Service police cadre, the current inspector general of police is A K M Shahidul Hoque, and his predecessor was Hassan Mahmud Khondokar. There is another temporary post of general of police, known as Pulish Shômônnoyôk or police coordinator. Before 1867 the position of Inspector General of Canada existed as the responsible for finances. After 1867 the position was assumed as the Minister of Finance, alexander Galt served at the last Inspector General from 1858 to 1867 and the first Minister of Finance in 1867. Colombias inspector general is a unique post with broad powers to investigate government malfeasance, the inspection générale des Finances is particularly prestigious as a job appointment after studies at the École Nationale dAdministration. In recent decades, many of its members have occupied various positions in lieu of their traditional mission of inspection. The corps has come under increased criticism for this, during World War II, Colonel General Heinz Guderian was appointed inspector general of armoured troops on 1 March 1943, reporting directly to Adolf Hitler. Head of the Command Staff of the Armed Forces, his position is equivalent to that of the American chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. In the German federal police, the police officer is called inspector of the federal police as well. For all state police services there also exists an inspector. All of the sixteen German state police departements has an inspector, the state police presidents are normally not police officers, they are administration officials. The competence for police services in Germany is assigned to the states of Germany. The federal police is a coordinating police département with only a few competences, e. g. in border control or airport, in the scope of responsibility of the state police departments the federal police can only act with permission or request of the local state police. During the British rule in India, in 1861, the British Government introduced the Indian Councils Act of 1861, the act created a new cadre of police, called Superior Police Services, later known as the Indian Imperial Police. The highest rank in the service was the Inspector General, in modern India, the inspector general of police or joint commissioner of police is a two-star rank officer and one of the most senior officers in the state police forces. All inspectors general and joint commissioners in state police forces are Indian Police Service officers and they are in some states the commissioner of police for the city, that is they head a police force for a particular city
28.
Bollywood
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Bollywood is the sobriquet for Indias Hindi language film industry, based in the city of Mumbai, Maharashtra. It is more formally referred to as Hindi cinema, Bollywood is also one of the largest centers of film production in the world. Furthermore, Bollywood is one of the biggest film industries in the world in terms of the number of people employed, according to Matusitz, J. & Payano, P. In 2011, over 3.5 billion tickets were sold across the globe which in comparison is 900,000 tickets more than Hollywood, Bollywood produced 252 films in 2014 out of a total of 1969 films produced in Indian cinema. The name Bollywood is a derived from Bombay, India, and Hollywood, California. Bollywood does not exist as a physical place, some deplore the name, arguing that it makes the industry look like a poor cousin to Hollywood. The naming scheme for Bollywood was inspired by Tollywood, the name that was used to refer to the cinema of West Bengal and it was this chance juxtaposition of two pairs of rhyming syllables, Holly and Tolly, that led to the portmanteau name Tollywood being coined. However, Tollywood is now used popularly to refer to the Telugu Film Industry in Telangana & Andhra Pradesh, the term Bollywood itself has origins in the 1970s, when India overtook America as the worlds largest film producer. Credit for the term has been claimed by different people, including the lyricist, filmmaker and scholar Amit Khanna. Raja Harishchandra, by Dadasaheb Phalke, is known as the first silent feature film made in India, by the 1930s, the industry was producing over 200 films per annum. The first Indian sound film, Ardeshir Iranis Alam Ara, was a commercial success. There was clearly a huge market for talkies and musicals, Bollywood, the 1930s and 1940s were tumultuous times, India was buffeted by the Great Depression, World War II, the Indian independence movement, and the violence of the Partition. Most Bollywood films were unabashedly escapist, but there were also a number of filmmakers who tackled tough social issues, in 1937, Ardeshir Irani, of Alam Ara fame, made the first colour film in Hindi, Kisan Kanya. The next year, he made another film, a version of Mother India. However, colour did not become a feature until the late 1950s. At this time, lavish romantic musicals and melodramas were the fare at the cinema. Following Indias independence, the period from the late 1940s to the 1960s is regarded by historians as the Golden Age of Hindi cinema. Some of the most critically acclaimed Hindi films of all time were produced during this period, examples include the Guru Dutt films Pyaasa and Kaagaz Ke Phool and the Raj Kapoor films Awaara, Shree 420 and Dilip Kumars Aan
29.
Chetan Anand (director)
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Chetan Anand was a Hindi film producer, screenwriter and director from India, whose debut film, Neecha Nagar, was awarded the Palme dOr award at the first ever Cannes Film Festival in 1946. Later he co-founded Navketan Films with his younger brother Dev Anand in 1949 and he was the eldest brother of the Anand family as he was the elder brother to Hindi film actor-directors, Dev Anand and Vijay Anand. His younger sister, Sheel Kanta Kapur, is the mother of Hindi, Chetan Anand was born on 3 January 1921, in Lahore, British India, to well-to-do advocate Pishori Lal Anand. Chetan Anand went to Gurukul Kangri Vishwavidyalaya to study Hindu scriptures, in the early 1940s, while he was teaching History, he wrote a film script on king Ashoka, which he went on to show to director Phani Majumdar in Bombay. Anand failed to qualify for the Indian Civil Service exams in London, as luck would have it, Phani Majumdar cast him as a lead in his Hindi film, Rajkumar, released in 1944. He also became associated with Indian Peoples Theatre Association in Bombay present day Mumbai and he soon took to film direction with the well-acclaimed movie Neecha Nagar which won the Palme dOr award at the Cannes Film Festival in 1946. It was the film for Kamini Kaushal and became the first Indian film to gain international recognition and was the debut of Pandit Ravi Shankar. By the early 1950s, he and his younger brother Dev Anand had set up Navketan Productions in Bombay present day Mumbai, afsar, starring Dev Anand and Suraiya, was the first film made by Navketan, which turned out to be a moderate success. It was followed by Taxi Driver and Andhiyan, both of which he directed for the Navketan banner, while he made his reputation as a director, Chetan Anand kept on acting too occasionally. He appeared in Humsafar made in 1957, in 1957 he directed two movies Arpan and Anjali, in which he played lead roles too. He went on to act in Kala Bazar, Kinare-Kinare, Aman, Kanch Aur Heera and Hindustan Ki Kasam, together they gave some of most memorable and unique films in Hindi cinema like Haqeeqat, Heer Raanjha, Hanste Zakhm, and Hindustan Ki Kasam. Anand is known to be the film-maker who discovered Rajesh Khanna from an acting competition. Khanna as a result got his first break and was cast by Anand in the film Aakhri Khat, although G. P. Sippys Raaz introducing Rajesh Khanna and Babita was the first released film for Rajesh Khanna. Aakhari Khat is known for its beautiful locations, songs penned by Kaifi Aazmi, composed by Khayyam, the beautiful lady Indrani Mukherjee, actually Bunty and the music were the main attractions of this film. Apart from 17 feature films he is known for the acclaimed television serial, Param Vir Chakra. After separating from his wife, he had a relationship with the actress Priya Rajvansh. She was the heroine of his film Haqeeqat and all films after that and he had a relationship with her till his death. On 27 March 2000, Priya Rajvansh was murdered in her Juhu home, in 2002, Chetan Anands sons Ketan Anand and Vivek Anand along with their employees Mala Choudhary and Ashok Chinnaswamy were given life imprisonment for her murder
30.
Marathi language
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Marathi is an Indian language spoken predominantly by the Marathi people of Maharashtra. It is the language and co-official language in the Maharashtra and Goa states of Western India, respectively. There were 73 million speakers in 2001, Marathi ranks 19th in the list of most spoken languages in the world, Marathi has the fourth largest number of native speakers in India, after Hindi, Bengali and Telugu in that order. Marathi has some of the oldest literature of all modern Indo-Aryan languages, the major dialects of Marathi are Standard Marathi and the Varhadi dialect. Malvani Konkani has been influenced by Marathi varieties. Marathi has several features that set it aside from most other Indian languages, Marathi distinguishes inclusive and exclusive forms of we and possesses a three-way gender system that features the neuter in addition to the masculine and the feminine. In its phonology it contrasts apico-alveolar with alveopalatal affricates and, in common with Gujarati, Marathi is primarily spoken in Maharashtra and parts of neighbouring states of Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh, Goa, union-territories of Daman and Diu and Dadra and Nagar Haveli. The cities of Baroda, Surat, and Ahmedabad, Belgaum, Karwar, Nipani, Indore, Gwalior, Adoni, Hyderabad, Marathi is also spoken by Maharashtrian emigrants worldwide, especially in the United States, United Kingdom, Israel, Mauritius, and Canada. Marathi is the language of Maharashtra and co-official language in the union territories of Daman and Diu and Dadra. In Goa, Konkani is the official language, however. Marathi is included among the languages which stand a part of the Eight Schedule of the Constitution of India, the contemporary grammatical rules described by Maharashtra Sahitya Parishad and endorsed by the Government of Maharashtra are supposed to take precedence in standard written Marathi. Traditions of Marathi Linguistics and the rules give special status to tatsamas. This special status expects the rules for tatsamas to be followed as in Sanskrit and this practice provides Marathi with a large treasure of Sanskrit words to cope with demands of new technical words whenever needed. Jawaharlal Nehru University has announced plans to establish a department for Marathi. Marathi Day is celebrated on 27 February, the birthday of poet Vishnu Vaman Shirwadkar, Indian languages, including Marathi, that belong to the Indo-Aryan language family are derived from early forms of Prakrit. Marathi is one of languages that further descend from Maharashtri Prakrit. Marathi literature began and grew owing to the rise of the Seuna dynasty of Devgiri, further growth and usage of the language was because of two religious sects – the Mahanubhava and Varkari panthans – who adopted Marathi as the medium for preaching their doctrines of devotion. Marathi had attained a place in court life by the time of the Seuna kings
31.
Maharashtra
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Maharashtra is a state in the western region of India and is Indias second-most populous state and third-largest state by area. It is the wealthiest Indian state and it is also the worlds second-most populous sub-national entity. It has over 112 million inhabitants and its capital, Mumbai, has a population of approximately 18 million, Nagpur is Maharashtras second capital as well as its winter capital. Maharashtras business opportunities along with its potential to offer a standard of living attract migrants from all over India. Ancient and medieval Maharashtra included the empires of the Satavahana dynasty, Rashtrakuta dynasty, Western Chalukyas, Mughals, the major rivers of the state are Godavari, and Krishna. The Narmada and Tapti Rivers flow near the border between Maharashtra and Madhya Pradesh and Gujarat, Maharashtra is the second most urbanised state in India. The state has several popular Hindu places of pilgrimage including Pandharpur, Dehu and Alandi, other places that attract pilgrims from other parts of India and beyond include Hazur Sahib Gurudwara at Nanded, Sai Baba shrine at Shirdi and Dikshabhumi at Nagpur. Maharashtra is the wealthiest and one of the most developed states in India, as of 2011, the state had a per capita income of ₹1.0035 lakh, more than the national average of ₹0.73 lakh. Its GDP per capita crossed the ₹1.20 lakh threshold for the first time in 2013, however, as of 2014, the GDP per capita reduced to ₹1.03 lakh Agriculture and industries are the largest parts of the states economy. Major industries include chemical products, electrical and non-electrical machinery, textiles, petroleum, Jai Maharashtra The modern Marathi language developed from the Maharashtri Prakrit, and the word Mahratta is found in the Jain Maharashtri literature. The terms Maharashtra, Maharashtri, Marathi and Maratha may have derived from the same root, however, their exact etymology is uncertain. But the Marathas as a people do not seem to be mentioned before the thirteenth or fourteenth century, the most widely accepted theory among the linguistic scholars is that the words Maratha and Maharashtra ultimately derived from a combination of Maha and rashtrika. The word rashtrika is a Sanskritized form of Ratta, the name of a tribe or dynasty of petty chiefs ruling in the Deccan region. Another theory is that the term is derived from Maha and ratha / rathi, an alternative theory states that the term derives from the word Maha and Rashtra. However, this theory has not found acceptance among scholars who believe it to be the Sanskritised interpretation of later writers. Maharashtra was ruled by the Maurya Empire in the 4th and 3rd centuries BCE, around 230 BCE Maharashtra came under the rule of the Satavahana dynasty for 400 years. The greatest ruler of the Satavahana Dynasty was Gautamiputra Satakarni, in 90 CE Vedishri, son of the Satavahana king Satakarni, the Lord of Dakshinapatha, wielder of the unchecked wheel of Sovereignty, made Junnar, thirty miles north of Pune, the capital of his kingdom. The state was ruled by Western Satraps, Gupta Empire, Gurjara-Pratihara, Vakataka, Kadambas, Chalukya Empire, Rashtrakuta Dynasty, and Western Chalukya before finally
32.
Tamu Agung
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Tamu Agung is a 1955 Indonesian dramatic comedy film directed by Usmar Ismail. It stars Cassin Abbas, Nina Amora, M. Pandji Anom, the satirical political comedy, about the anticipation of the visit of a dignitary to a small isolated village in East Java, was critically acclaimed, although was disliked by the government. The film, produced under the Perfini banner, was shot by cinematographer Max Tera, the village of Sukaslamet is scheduled to receive an honoured guest from afar. Midi, a villager, is sent to the city to escort him, distracted and confused by the lively city, Midi comes across a salesman offering a potent hair-growing tonic, which – unknown to Midi – is actually ineffective. To speed the onset of the effects, Midi arranges for a car to take him. There, the salesman is welcomed as the honored guest, however, his fun is cut short when the actual guest arrives in the village, and the salesman is driven out of the village. Tamu Agung was directed by Usmar Ismail for his company Perfini, cinematography of this black-and-white film was completed by Max Tera, with R Husein as a second cameraman. Artistic direction was handled by R Hibnu DJ, Ardi Ahmad, music was provided by Sjaiful Bachri. Soemardjono served as editor, with Janis Badar as his assistant, the film starred Cassin Abbas, Nina Amora, M. Pandji Anom, Chitra Dewi, Kuntjung, Tina Melinda, Hassan Sanusi, Sulastri, and Udjang. Tamu Agung was a failure upon release on 21 May 1955, making only Rp.147,301 during its run. However, it received acclaim from critics, and although it was frowned upon by Sukarnos government. The film was screened at the 1956 Asia Film Festival in Hong Kong, winning Best Comedy, monash University writes that the film brilliantly interweaves modern political discourse with archaic Javanese rhetoric, taken from the narratives of the Wayang. Tamu Agung at the Internet Movie Database
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Usmar Ismail
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Usmar Ismail was a prominent Indonesian film director. He was of a Minangkabau descent and he was widely regarded as the native Indonesian pioneer of the Cinema of Indonesia although films made by the Dutch date back to around 1926. He was perhaps best known internationally for his 1961 film Fighters for Freedom which documented Indonesian independence from the Dutch and French, the film was entered into the 2nd Moscow International Film Festival. Ismail initially served in the army during the Dutch occupation, later, following his dream of becoming a film director, he established Perfini Studios, Indonesias first film studios, in the early fifties. A concert hall known as the Usmar Ismail Hall, which gives musical, opera and theatrical performances, was established in his name in Jakarta
34.
Java
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Java is an island of Indonesia. With a population of over 141 million or 145 million as of 2015 Census released in December 2015, the Indonesian capital city, Jakarta, is located on western Java. Much of Indonesian history took place on Java and it was the center of powerful Hindu-Buddhist empires, the Islamic sultanates, and the core of the colonial Dutch East Indies. Java was also the center of the Indonesian struggle for independence during the 1930s and 1940s, Java dominates Indonesia politically, economically and culturally. Formed mostly as the result of eruptions, Java is the 13th largest island in the world. A chain of mountains forms an east–west spine along the island. Three main languages are spoken on the island, Javanese, Sundanese, of these, Javanese is the dominant, it is the native language of about 60 million people in Indonesia, most of whom live on Java. Furthermore, most residents are bilingual, speaking Indonesian as their first or second language, while the majority of the people of Java are Muslim, Java has a diverse mixture of religious beliefs, ethnicities, and cultures. Java is divided into four provinces, West Java, Central Java, East Java, and Banten, the origins of the name Java are not clear. One possibility is that the island was named after the plant, which was said to be common in the island during the time. There are other sources, the word jaú and its variations mean beyond or distant. And, in Sanskrit yava means barley, a plant for which the island was famous, Yawadvipa is mentioned in Indias earliest epic, the Ramayana. Sugriva, the chief of Ramas army dispatched his men to Yawadvipa and it was hence referred to in India by the Sanskrit name yāvaka dvīpa. Java is mentioned in the ancient Tamil text Manimekalai by Chithalai Chathanar that states that Java had a kingdom with a capital called Nagapuram, another source states that the Java word is derived from a Proto-Austronesian root word, Iawa that meaning home. The great island of Iabadiu or Jabadiu was mentioned in Ptolemys Geographia composed around 150 CE Roman Empire, Iabadiu is said to mean barley island, to be rich in gold, and have a silver town called Argyra at the west end. The name indicate Java, and seems to be derived from Hindu name Java-dvipa, Java lies between Sumatra to the west and Bali to the east. Borneo lies to the north and Christmas Island is to the south and it is the worlds 13th largest island. Java is surrounded by the Java Sea to the north, Sunda Strait to the west, Java is almost entirely of volcanic origin, it contains thirty-eight mountains forming an east–west spine that have at one time or another been active volcanoes
35.
Roaring Years
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Roaring Years is a 1962 Italian comedy film directed by Luigi Zampa set in the 1930s during the Fascist period of Benito Mussolini. It stars Nino Manfredi and Gino Cervi, the film was inspired by the satirical comedy The Government Inspector” by Nikolai Gogol, The film won Best Feature at the 1962 Locarno International Film Festival. The threat of this political-administrative inspection causes terror the entire city administration, the most fearful are those who have enriched themselves at the expense of public finance, with all sorts of abuses. In addition to public humiliation, they fear that strict measures will be taken against them, in the film, the comic effect is increased by the fact that an unsuspecting insurer, Romeo Battifiori, who happens to come into the town is believed to be the fascist inspector. He is made the object of every honour and, of course, is utterly deceived
36.
Luigi Zampa
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Luigi Zampa was an Italian film-maker. Son of a worker, Zampa studied film making from 1932 to 1937 at the Italian film school Centro sperimentale di cinematografia in Rome and he directed several Italian neorealism films in the 1940s. In 1949 he filmed in UK the British film Children of Chance, during the 1950s and 1960s he became a director of several successful films belonging to the Commedia allitaliana genre, some starring Alberto Sordi. Luigi Zampa at the Internet Movie Database
37.
Nino Manfredi
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Saturnino Nino Manfredi was one of the most prominent Italian actors in the commedia allitaliana genre. He was also a film and stage director, a screenwriter, a playwright, a comedian, a singer, an author, a radio and television presenter and a voice actor. During his career he won awards, including six David di Donatello awards, six Nastro dArgento awards. Manfredi was born in Castro dei Volsci, Frosinone into a family of farmers. In October 1945 he graduated in law with a thesis in criminal law, without practicing the profession. Manfredi made his stage debut in 1947, working in plays directed by Luigi Squarzina. The same year, he entered the Maltagliati-Gassman stage company, mostly acting in dramatic roles, in 1948 he entered the company of the Piccolo Teatro di Milano under Giorgio Strehler, playing in tragedies such as Romeo and Juliet and The Storm. The same year he started working on radio as a comedian, in 1949 he made his film debut in the melodrama Monastero di Santa Chiara. In 1952 he worked with Eduardo De Filippo in Tre atti unici, along with Tino Buazzelli, Paolo Panelli, the same year he entered the revue company of the Nava sisters, and started working as a voice actor and a dubber. In 1955 he took part to his first high-profile films, The Bachelor by Antonio Pietrangeli, in 1958 Manfredi got his first film roles as main actor. The same year he formed a company with Delia Scala and Paolo Panelli. The success immediately got him a contract with Dino De Laurentiis which he dropped one year to be free to choose his favorite projects. In 1962 Manfredi enjoyed a larger success playing the title role in the stage musical Rugantino, with which he toured also in Canada, Usa. The same year he directed the critically apprecciated segment Lavventura di un soldato in the anthology film Of Wayward Love, in 1969, with Nellanno del Signore, he started a fruitful collaboration with the director Luigi Magni. In the same period he started collaborating, often uncredited, to the screenplays of his films, in 1972 he got a major television success playing Geppetto in the Luigi Comencinis adaptation The Adventures of Pinocchio. Following his last film as director and two hit films starred alongside Renato Pozzetto, in the 1980s Manfredi significantly slowed his cinema activities. In 1983 he debuted as author with the book Proverbi e altre cose romanesche, while in 1984 he signed his first work as playwright and stage director, in 1990 he received a David di Donatello career award. In 1992, after having first accepted to be a candidate at the elections with the Pannella List, in 1993, during the shooting of Un commissario a Roma, he suffered a hypoxia which compromised his memory functions
38.
Fascism
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Fascism /ˈfæʃɪzəm/ is a form of radical authoritarian nationalism that came to prominence in early 20th-century Europe. The first fascist movements emerged in Italy during World War I, opposed to liberalism, Marxism, and anarchism, fascism is usually placed on the far-right within the traditional left–right spectrum. Fascists saw World War I as a revolution that brought changes to the nature of war, society, the state. The advent of war and the total mass mobilization of society had broken down the distinction between civilians and combatants. A military citizenship arose in which all citizens were involved with the military in some manner during the war, Fascism rejects assertions that violence is automatically negative in nature, and views political violence, war, and imperialism as means that can achieve national rejuvenation. Fascists advocate a mixed economy, with the goal of achieving autarky through protectionist and interventionist economic policies. Since the end of World War II in 1945, few parties have openly described themselves as fascist, the descriptions neo-fascist or post-fascist are sometimes applied more formally to describe parties of the far right with ideologies similar to, or rooted in, 20th century fascist movements. The Italian term fascismo is derived from fascio meaning a bundle of rods and this was the name given to political organizations in Italy known as fasci, groups similar to guilds or syndicates. According to Mussolinis own account, the Fascist Revolutionary Party was founded in Italy in 1915, in 1919, Mussolini founded the Fasci Italiani di Combattimento in Milan, which became the Partito Nazionale Fascista two years later. The symbolism of the fasces suggested strength through unity, a rod is easily broken. Similar symbols were developed by different fascist movements, for example, historians, political scientists, and other scholars have long debated the exact nature of fascism. Each interpretation of fascism is distinct, leaving many definitions too wide or narrow, according to many scholars, fascism—especially once in power—has historically attacked communism, conservatism and parliamentary liberalism, attracting support primarily from the far right. Roger Griffin describes fascism as a genus of political ideology whose mythic core in its various permutations is a form of populist ultranationalism. Griffin describes the ideology as having three components, the rebirth myth, populist ultra-nationalism and the myth of decadence. Fascism is a revolutionary, trans-class form of anti-liberal, and in the last analysis. Fascist Philosophies vary by application, but remain distinct by one theoretic commonality, all traditionally fall into the far-right sector of any political spectrum, catalyzed by afflicted class identities over conventional social inequities. John Lukacs, Hungarian-American historian and Holocaust survivor, argues there is no such thing as generic fascism. He claims that National Socialism and Communism are essentially manifestations of populism, Fascism was influenced by both left and right, conservative and anti-conservative, national and supranational, rational and anti-rational
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The Inspector-General public domain audiobook at LibriVox
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