1.
Russia
–
Russia, also officially the Russian Federation, is a country in Eurasia. The European western part of the country is more populated and urbanised than the eastern. Russias capital Moscow is one of the largest cities in the world, other urban centers include Saint Petersburg, Novosibirsk, Yekaterinburg, Nizhny Novgorod. Extending across the entirety of Northern Asia and much of Eastern Europe, Russia spans eleven time zones and incorporates a range of environments. It shares maritime borders with Japan by the Sea of Okhotsk, the East Slavs emerged as a recognizable group in Europe between the 3rd and 8th centuries AD. Founded and ruled by a Varangian warrior elite and their descendants, in 988 it adopted Orthodox Christianity from the Byzantine Empire, beginning the synthesis of Byzantine and Slavic cultures that defined Russian culture for the next millennium. Rus ultimately disintegrated into a number of states, most of the Rus lands were overrun by the Mongol invasion. The Soviet Union played a role in the Allied victory in World War II. The Soviet era saw some of the most significant technological achievements of the 20th century, including the worlds first human-made satellite and the launching of the first humans in space. By the end of 1990, the Soviet Union had the second largest economy, largest standing military in the world. It is governed as a federal semi-presidential republic, the Russian economy ranks as the twelfth largest by nominal GDP and sixth largest by purchasing power parity in 2015. Russias extensive mineral and energy resources are the largest such reserves in the world, making it one of the producers of oil. The country is one of the five recognized nuclear weapons states and possesses the largest stockpile of weapons of mass destruction, Russia is a great power as well as a regional power and has been characterised as a potential superpower. The name Russia is derived from Rus, a state populated mostly by the East Slavs. However, this name became more prominent in the later history, and the country typically was called by its inhabitants Русская Земля. In order to distinguish this state from other states derived from it, it is denoted as Kievan Rus by modern historiography, an old Latin version of the name Rus was Ruthenia, mostly applied to the western and southern regions of Rus that were adjacent to Catholic Europe. The current name of the country, Россия, comes from the Byzantine Greek designation of the Kievan Rus, the standard way to refer to citizens of Russia is Russians in English and rossiyane in Russian. There are two Russian words which are translated into English as Russians
Russia
–
Kievan Rus' in the 11th century
Russia
–
Flag
Russia
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The
Baptism of Kievans, by
Klavdy Lebedev
Russia
–
Sergius of Radonezh blessing
Dmitry Donskoy in
Trinity Sergius Lavra, before the
Battle of Kulikovo, depicted in a painting by
Ernst Lissner
2.
Commonwealth of Independent States
–
The Commonwealth of Independent States, also called the Russian Commonwealth, is a regional organization formed during the dissolution of the Soviet Union. Nine out of the 15 former Soviet Republics are member states, Georgia withdrew its membership in 2008, while the Baltic states chose not to participate. The CIS has few supranational powers but aims to be more than a purely symbolic organization, nominally possessing coordinating powers in the realms of trade, finance, lawmaking and it has also promoted cooperation on cross-border crime prevention. Furthermore, eight of the nine CIS member states participate in the CIS Free Trade Area, three organizations are under the overview of the CIS, namely the Collective Security Treaty Organization, the Eurasian Economic Union, and the Union State. While the first and the second are military and economic alliances, in March 1991, Mikhail Gorbachev, the president of the Soviet Union, proposed a federation by holding a referendum to preserve the Union as the Union of Sovereign States. The new treaty signing never happened as the Communist Party hardliners staged a coup in August that year. Following the events of August, the republics had declared their independence fearing another coup, at the same time they announced that the new alliance would be open to all republics of the former Soviet Union, and to other nations sharing the same goals. The CIS charter stated that all the members were sovereign and independent nations, Georgia joined two years later, in December 1993. At this point,12 of the 15 former Soviet Republics participated in the CIS, the three Baltic states did not, reflecting their governments view that the post-1940 Soviet occupation of their territory was illegitimate. In May 2009, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Georgia, Moldova, and Ukraine joined the Eastern Partnership, there are nine full member states of the Commonwealth of Independent States. The Creation Agreement remained the main constituent document of the CIS until January 1993, the charter formalised the concept of membership, a member country is defined as a country that ratifies the CIS Charter. Turkmenistan has not ratified the charter and changed its CIS standing to associate member as of 26 August 2005 in order to be consistent with its UN-recognised international neutrality status, thus it does not regard itself as a member of the CIS. In 1993 Ukraine became an Associate Member of CIS, following the 2014 parliamentary election, a new bill to denounce the CIS agreement was introduced. In September 2015 the Ukrainian Ministry of Foreign Affairs confirmed Ukraine will continue taking part in CIS on a selective basis, since that month Ukraine has had no representatives in the CIS Executive Committee building. Since its inception, one of the goals of the CIS has been to provide a forum for discussing issues related to the social. To achieve this goal member states have agreed to promote and protect human rights, even before the 1995 human rights treaty, the Charter of the CIS that was adopted in 1991 created, in article 33, a Human Rights Commission sitting in Minsk, Belarus. This was confirmed by decision of the Council of Heads of States of the CIS in 1993, in 1995, the CIS adopted a human rights treaty that includes civil and political as well as social and economic human rights. This treaty entered force in 1998
Commonwealth of Independent States
–
Signing of the agreement to establish the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS), December 8, 1991.
Commonwealth of Independent States
–
Flag
Commonwealth of Independent States
–
Meeting of CIS leaders in
Bishkek, 2008.
3.
Mamayev Kurgan
–
Mamayev Kurgan is a dominant height overlooking the city of Volgograd in Southern Russia. The name in Russian means tumulus of Mamai, the formation is dominated by a memorial complex commemorating the Battle of Stalingrad. The battle, a hard-fought Soviet victory over Axis forces on the Eastern front of World War II, control of the hill became vitally important, as it offered control over the city. To defend it, the Soviets had built strong defensive lines on the slopes of the hill, composed of trenches, barbed-wire, the Germans pushed forward against the hill, taking heavy casualties. When they finally captured the hill, they started firing on the city centre and they captured the Volgograd railway station on 14 September 1942. On the same day, the Soviet 13th Guards Rifle Division commanded by Alexander Rodimtsev arrived in the city from the east side of the river Volga under heavy German artillery fire, the divisions 10,000 men immediately rushed into the battle. On 16 September they recaptured Mamayev Kurgan and kept fighting for the railway station, by the following day, almost all of them had died. The Soviets kept reinforcing their units in the city as fast as they could, the Germans assaulted up to twelve times a day, and the Soviets would respond with fierce counter-attacks. The hill changed hands several times, by 27 September, the Germans again captured half of Mamayev Kurgan. The Soviets held their own positions on the slopes of the hill, the defenders held out until 26 January 1943, when the counterattacking Soviet forces relieved them. The battle of the city ended one week later with an utter German defeat. When the battle ended, the soil on the hill had been so thoroughly churned by shellfire, the earth on the hill had remained black in the winter, as the snow kept melting in the many fires and explosions. In the following spring the hill would still remain black, as no grass grew on its scorched soil, the hills formerly steep slopes had become flattened in months of intense shelling and bombardment. Even today, it is possible to find fragments of bone, after the war, the Soviet authorities commissioned the enormous Mamayev Kurgan memorial complex. Vasily Chuikov, who led Soviet forces at Stalingrad, lies buried at Mamayev Kurgan, Soviet sniper Vasily Zaytsev was also reburied there in 2006. The monumental memorial was constructed between 1959 and 1967, and is crowned by an allegorical statue of the Motherland on the top of the hill. The monument, designed by Yevgeny Vuchetich, has the full name The Motherland Calls and it consists of a concrete sculpture,52 metres tall, and 85 metres from the feet to the tip of the 27-metre sword, dominating the skyline of the city of Stalingrad. The construction uses concrete, except for the blade of the sword
Mamayev Kurgan
–
Mamayev Kurgan with the
The Motherland Statue
Mamayev Kurgan
–
Eternal Flame
Mamayev Kurgan
–
Picture taken from the top of Mamayev Kurgan (at the base of the statue), looking down over the
Volga river
Mamayev Kurgan
–
All Saints Church
4.
Volgograd
–
Volgograd, formerly Tsaritsyn, 1589–1925, and Stalingrad, 1925–1961, is an important industrial city and the administrative center of Volgograd Oblast, Russia. It is 80 kilometers long, north to south and is situated on the bank of the Volga River, after which the city was named. The city became famous for its resistance during the Battle of Stalingrad against the German Army in World War II and it is often regarded as the largest and bloodiest battle in the history of warfare. Although the city may have originated in 1555, documented evidence of Tsaritsyn located at the confluence of the Tsaritsa, grigori Zasekin established the fortress Sary Su as part of the defences of the unstable southern border of the Tsardom of Russia. The structure stood slightly above the mouth of the Tsaritsa River on the right bank and it soon became the nucleus of a trading settlement. In 1607 the fortress garrison rebelled against the troops of Tsar Vasili Shuisky for six months, in 1608 the city acquired its first stone church, St. John the Baptist. At the beginning of the 17th century, the garrison consisted of 350 to 400 people, in 1670 troops of Stepan Razin captured the fortress, they left after a month. In 1708 the insurgent Cossack Kondraty Bulavin held the fortress, in 1717 in the Kuban pogrom, raiders from the Kuban under the command of the Crimean Tatar Bakhti Gerai blockaded the town and enslaved thousands in the area. In August 1774 Yemelyan Pugachev unsuccessfully attempted to storm the city, in 1708 Tsaritsyn was assigned to the Kazan Governorate, in 1719 to the Astrakhan Governorate. According to the census in 1720, the city had a population of 408 people, in 1773 the city became the provincial and district town. From 1779 it belonged to the Saratov Viceroyalty, in 1780 the city came under the newly established Saratov Governorate. In the 19th century Tsaritsyn became an important river-port and commercial center, the population expanded rapidly, increasing from fewer than 3,000 people in 1807 to about 84,000 in 1900. The first railroad reached the town in 1862, the first theatre opened in 1872, the first cinema in 1907. In 1913 Tsaritsyn got its first tram-line, and the citys first electric lights were installed in the city center, during the Russian Civil War of 1917-1923, Tsaritsyn came under Soviet control from November 1917. In 1918 White troops under the Ataman of the Don Cossack Host, Pyotr Krasnov, the Reds repulsed three assaults by the Whites. However, in June 1919 the White Armed Forces of South Russia under the command of General Denikin captured Tsaritsyn, the fighting from July 1918 to January 1920 became known as the Battle for Tsaritsyn. The city was renamed Stalingrad after Joseph Stalin on April 10,1925 and this was officially to recognize the citys and Stalins role in its defense against the Whites between 1918 and 1920. In 1931, the German settlement-colony Old Sarepta became a district of Stalingrad, renamed Krasnoarmeysky Rayon, it became the largest area of the city
Volgograd
–
Mamayev Kurgan with the
The Motherland Statue
Volgograd
–
Location of Volgograd Oblast in Russia
Volgograd
–
Map of Tsaritsyn (Volgograd) City map, Russian edition on 1909
Volgograd
–
City tram on Gogolya Street in 1914
5.
Yevgeny Vuchetich
–
Yevgeny Viktorovich Vuchetich was a prominent Soviet sculptor and artist. He is known for his monuments, often of allegoric style, including The Motherland Calls. Vuchetich was born in Yekaterinoslav, Russian Empire, the son of Viktor Vučetić, of Serbian ethnicity, one of his step-granddaughters, is Israeli politician Ksenia Svetlova. Soviet War Memorial in Treptower Park, Berlin, overseen by a 13m tall monument of a Soviet soldier holding a German child, with a sword, over a broken swastika. Let Us Beat Swords into Plowshares in the United Nations garden Let Us Beat Swords into Plowshares in front of the plant Gazoapparat in Volgograd, a sculpture of Felix Dzerzhinsky, colloquially known as Iron Felix, used to be in Moscow at the Lubyanka Square. The Motherland Calls. at Mamayev Kurgan List of Russian artists
Yevgeny Vuchetich
–
Let Us Beat Swords into Plowshares
Yevgeny Vuchetich
–
Contents
6.
Russian language
–
Russian is an East Slavic language and an official language in Russia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan and many minor or unrecognised territories. Russian belongs to the family of Indo-European languages and is one of the four living members of the East Slavic languages, written examples of Old East Slavonic are attested from the 10th century and beyond. It is the most geographically widespread language of Eurasia and the most widely spoken of the Slavic languages and it is also the largest native language in Europe, with 144 million native speakers in Russia, Ukraine and Belarus. Russian is the eighth most spoken language in the world by number of native speakers, the language is one of the six official languages of the United Nations. Russian is also the second most widespread language on the Internet after English, Russian distinguishes between consonant phonemes with palatal secondary articulation and those without, the so-called soft and hard sounds. This distinction is found between pairs of almost all consonants and is one of the most distinguishing features of the language, another important aspect is the reduction of unstressed vowels. Russian is a Slavic language of the Indo-European family and it is a lineal descendant of the language used in Kievan Rus. From the point of view of the language, its closest relatives are Ukrainian, Belarusian, and Rusyn. An East Slavic Old Novgorod dialect, although vanished during the 15th or 16th century, is considered to have played a significant role in the formation of modern Russian. In the 19th century, the language was often called Great Russian to distinguish it from Belarusian, then called White Russian and Ukrainian, however, the East Slavic forms have tended to be used exclusively in the various dialects that are experiencing a rapid decline. In some cases, both the East Slavic and the Church Slavonic forms are in use, with different meanings. For details, see Russian phonology and History of the Russian language and it is also regarded by the United States Intelligence Community as a hard target language, due to both its difficulty to master for English speakers and its critical role in American world policy. The standard form of Russian is generally regarded as the modern Russian literary language, mikhail Lomonosov first compiled a normalizing grammar book in 1755, in 1783 the Russian Academys first explanatory Russian dictionary appeared. By the mid-20th century, such dialects were forced out with the introduction of the education system that was established by the Soviet government. Despite the formalization of Standard Russian, some nonstandard dialectal features are observed in colloquial speech. Thus, the Russian language is the 6th largest in the world by number of speakers, after English, Mandarin, Hindi/Urdu, Spanish, Russian is one of the six official languages of the United Nations. Education in Russian is still a choice for both Russian as a second language and native speakers in Russia as well as many of the former Soviet republics. Russian is still seen as an important language for children to learn in most of the former Soviet republics, samuel P. Huntington wrote in the Clash of Civilizations, During the heyday of the Soviet Union, Russian was the lingua franca from Prague to Hanoi
Russian language
–
Russian language street sign in
Russia.
Russian language
–
Russian minimarket in
Limassol, Cyprus; translation: "Teremok market. Russian goods. Phone number: 96 74 19 63"
Russian language
–
This page from an "ABC" book printed in Moscow in 1694 shows the letter
П.
Russian language
–
The
Ostromir Gospels of 1056 is the second oldest
East Slavic book known, one of many medieval
illuminated manuscripts preserved in the
Russian National Library.
7.
Romanization of Russian
–
Romanization of the Russian alphabet is the process of transliterating the Russian language from the Cyrillic script into the Latin alphabet. Scientific transliteration, also known as the International Scholarly System, is a system that has used in linguistics since the 19th century. It is based on the Czech alphabet and formed the basis of the GOST, OST8483 was the first Soviet standard on romanization of Russian, introduced in 16 October 1935. This standard is an equivalent of GOST 16876-71 and was adopted as a standard of the COMECON. GOST7. 79-2000 System of Standards on Information, Librarianship and it is the official standard of both Russia and the Commonwealth of Independent States. Machine readable passports is an adoption of an ICAO stadards for travel documents and it was used in Russian passports for a short period during 2010–2013. The standard was substituted in 2013 by GOST R ISO/IEC 7501-1-2013, which does not contain romanization, ISO/R9, established in 1954 and updated in 1968, was the adoption of the scientific transliteration by the International Organization for Standardization. It covers Russian and seven other Slavic languages, ISO9,1995 is the current transliteration standard from ISO. It is based on its predecessor ISO/R9,1968, which it deprecates, for Russian, the UNGEGN, a Working Group of the United Nations, in 1987 recommended a romanization system for geographical names, which was based on the 1983 version of GOST 16876-71. It may be found in some international cartographic products, American Library Association and Library of Congress romanization tables for Slavic alphabets are used in North American libraries and in the British Library since 1975. The formal, unambiguous version of the system requires some diacritics and two-letter tie characters, British Standard 2979,1958 is the main system of the Oxford University Press, and a variation was used by the British Library to catalogue publications acquired up to 1975. The BGN/PCGN system is relatively intuitive for Anglophones to read and pronounce, the portion of the system pertaining to the Russian language was adopted by BGN in 1944 and by PCGN in 1947. In Soviet international passports, transliteration was based on French rules, in 1997, with the introduction of new Russian passports, a diacritic-free English-oriented system was established by the Ministry of Internal Affairs, but this system was also abandoned in 2010. In 2006, GOST52535. 1-2006 was adopted, which defines technical requirements and standards for Russian international passports, in 2010, the Federal Migratory Service of Russia approved Order No. 26, stating that all names in the passports issued after 2010 must be transliterated using GOST52535. 1-2006. The standard was abandoned in 2013, finally in 2013, Order No.320 of the Federal Migratory Service of Russia came into force. It states that all names in the passports must be transliterated using the ICAO system. This system differs from the GOST52535. 1-2006 system in two things, ц is transliterated into ts, ъ is transliterated into ie, Scholarly ¹ Some archaic letters are transcribed in different ways
Romanization of Russian
–
Sergei Gonchar (Cyrillic: Сергей Гончар), an NHL and international ice hockey player, wearing a sweater with Roman characters
Romanization of Russian
–
A street sign in Russia with the name of the street shown in Cyrillic and Latin characters
8.
Statue
–
A statue is a sculpture representing one or more people or animals, normally full-length, as opposed to a bust, and at least close to life-size, or larger. A small statue, usually enough to be picked up, is called a statuette or figurine. Statues have been produced in many cultures from prehistory to the present, the worlds tallest statue, Spring Temple Buddha, is 128 metres, and is located in Lushan County, Henan, China. Many statues are built on commission to commemorate a historical event, many statues are intended as public art, exhibited outdoors or in public buildings. Some statues gain fame in their own right, separate from the person or concept they represent, Ancient statues often survive showing the bare surface of the material of which they are made. For example, many people associate Greek classical art with white marble sculpture, most of the colour was weathered off over time, small remnants were removed during cleaning, in some cases small traces remained which could be identified. Richter goes so far as to say of classical Greek sculpture, All stone sculpture, whether limestone or marble, was painted, medieval statues were also usually painted, with some still retaining their original pigments. The colouring of statues ceased during the Renaissance, as excavated classical sculptures, the Löwenmensch figurine from the Swabian Alps in Germany is the oldest known statue in the world, and dates to 30, 000-40,000 years ago. The Venus of Hohle Fels, from the area, is somewhat later. Throughout history, statues have been associated with images in many religious traditions, from Ancient Egypt, Ancient Greece. Egyptian statues showing kings as sphinxes have existed since the Old Kingdom, the oldest statue of a striding pharaoh dates from the reign of Senwosret I and is the Egyptian Museum, Cairo. The Middle Kingdom of Egypt witnessed the growth of block statues which then became the most popular form until the Ptolemaic period, the oldest statue of a deity in Rome was the bronze statue of Ceres in 485 BC. The oldest statue in Rome is now the statue of Diana on the Aventine, the wonders of the world include several statues from antiquity, with the Colossus of Rhodes and the Statue of Zeus at Olympia among the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World. While Byzantine art flourished in various forms, sculpture and statue making witnessed a general decline, an example was the statue of Justinian which stood in the square across from the Hagia Sophia until the fall of Constantinople in the 15th century. While making statues was not subject to a ban, it was hardly encouraged in this period. Starting with the work of Maillol around 1900, the human figures embodied in statues began to move away from the schools of realism that had held them bound for thousands of years. The Futurist and Cubist schools took this even further until statues, often still nominally representing humans, had lost all. By the 1920s and 1930s statues began to appear that were abstract in design
Statue
–
The Thinker, by
Rodin c. 1902, Bronze,
Copenhagen
Statue
–
Easter Island moai statues
Statue
–
Great Sphinx of Giza, c. 2558–2532 BC, the largest
monolith statue in the world, standing 73.5 metres (241 ft) long, 6 metres (20 ft) wide, and 20.22 m (66.34 ft) high.
Giza,
Egypt.
Statue
–
The
Charioteer of Delphi, 474 BC,
Delphi Archaeological Museum, Greece
9.
Battle of Stalingrad
–
Marked by fierce close quarters combat and direct assaults on civilians by air raids, it is often regarded as one of the single largest and bloodiest battles in the history of warfare. German forces never regained the initiative in the East and withdrew a vast military force from the West to replace their losses, the German offensive to capture Stalingrad began in August 1942, using the German 6th Army and elements of the 4th Panzer Army. The attack was supported by intensive Luftwaffe bombing that reduced much of the city to rubble, the fighting degenerated into house-to-house fighting, and both sides poured reinforcements into the city. By mid-November 1942, the Germans had pushed the Soviet defenders back at great cost into narrow zones along the west bank of the Volga River. On 19 November 1942, the Red Army launched Operation Uranus, the Axis forces on the flanks were overrun and the 6th Army was cut off and surrounded in the Stalingrad area. Adolf Hitler ordered that the stay in Stalingrad and make no attempt to break out, instead, attempts were made to supply the army by air. Heavy fighting continued for two months. By the beginning of February 1943, the Axis forces in Stalingrad had exhausted their ammunition, the remaining units of the 6th Army surrendered. The battle lasted five months, one week, and three days, elsewhere, the war had been progressing well, the U-boat offensive in the Atlantic had been very successful and Rommel had just captured Tobruk. In the east, they had stabilized their front in a running from Leningrad in the north to Rostov in the south. There were a number of salients, but these were not particularly threatening, neither Army Group North nor Army Group South had been particularly hard pressed over the winter. Stalin was expecting the main thrust of the German summer attacks to be directed against Moscow again, with the initial operations being very successful, the Germans decided that their summer campaign in 1942 would be directed at the southern parts of the Soviet Union. The initial objectives in the region around Stalingrad were the destruction of the capacity of the city. The river was a key route from the Caucasus and the Caspian Sea to central Russia and its capture would disrupt commercial river traffic. The Germans cut the pipeline from the oilfields when they captured Rostov on 23 July, the capture of Stalingrad would make the delivery of Lend Lease supplies via the Persian Corridor much more difficult. On 23 July 1942, Hitler personally rewrote the operational objectives for the 1942 campaign, both sides began to attach propaganda value to the city based on it bearing the name of the leader of the Soviet Union. The expansion of objectives was a significant factor in Germanys failure at Stalingrad, caused by German overconfidence, the Soviets realized that they were under tremendous constraints of time and resources and ordered that anyone strong enough to hold a rifle be sent to fight. If I do not get the oil of Maikop and Grozny then I must finish this war, Army Group South was selected for a sprint forward through the southern Russian steppes into the Caucasus to capture the vital Soviet oil fields there
Battle of Stalingrad
–
Soviet soldier waving the Red Banner over the central plaza of Stalingrad in 1943.
Battle of Stalingrad
–
Infantry and a supporting
StuG III assault gun advance towards the city center.
Battle of Stalingrad
–
October 1942: German officer with a Russian
PPSh-41 submachine gun in Barrikady factory rubble. Many German soldiers took up Russian weapons when found, as they were more effective than their own in
close quarter combat.
Battle of Stalingrad
–
German soldiers on their way in Stalingrad
10.
List of statues by height
–
This list of the tallest statues in the world includes statues that are least 30 meters tall, which was the height of the Colossus of Rhodes. The height values in this list exclude the height of any pedestal, plinth and this list is sorted by height of the statue by default, but can also be sorted by other criteria, such as date completed or statue name. As of 2016, the table includes 132 statues of height 30 m or taller. The countries with three or more entries in the list are, The count from China includes two from Hong Kong, among other statues in planning, China and India are planning ten and eight more statues, respectively. Afghanistan, Great Buddha of Bamiyan, Vairocana Buddha, Bamiyan Province, Completed in 554 and destroyed by the Taliban in 2001. Afghanistan, Minor Buddha of Bamiyan, Gautama Buddha, Bamiyan province, Completed in 507 and destroyed by the Taliban in 2001. Completed in 75 with unknown date of destruction, China, Gilded Statue of Mao Zedong sitting in a chair, Tongxu county, Henan. Dismantled before completion in early January 2016, france, The Cosmoplanetary Messiah, near Castellane, Alpes-de-Haute-Provence. Built without permit and completed in 1990, demolished by authorities in 2001, greece, Colossus of Rhodes, Rhodes island, Dodecanese region. Completed in 280 BC and destroyed by earthquake in 226 BC, Japan, Biwako Great Buddha, Buddha Amitabha standing, Nagahama, Shiga 27 m. Completed in 1937 and broken in 1992, Mongolia, Statue of Avalokiteśvara Buddha, Ulan Bator. Completed in 1913 and destroyed in 1937, Japan, Beppu Daibutsu, Buddha Amitabha sitting, Beppu, Ōita, Japan. Completed in 1927 and broken in 1989, Japan, Hōkō-ji Daibutsu, Buddha Vairocana sitting, Kyoto. Completed in 1595 and destroyed by earthquake in 1596, united States, Statue of the Republic Worlds Columbian Exposition of 1893, Chicago, Illinois. 20 m Completed in 1893, destroyed in 1894, a one-third scale replica stands in Jackson Park, near the original site of the statue. United States, King of Kings Jesus Statue, Monroe, Ohio,19 m Completed in 2004, destroyed in 2010 by lightning strike and fire. China, Dahui Temple Dafo, Guanyin, Beijing, Completed in 1513 and destroyed during Japanese Occupation 1943–45. 15.5 m, stood on some 15 m pedestal, Completed in 1955, destroyed in 1962
List of statues by height
–
Ushiku Daibutsu
List of statues by height
–
Approximate heights of various notable statues: 1.
Spring Temple Buddha 153 m (incl. 25 m pedestal and 20 m throne) 2.
Statue of Liberty 93 m (incl. 47 m pedestal) 3.
The Motherland Calls 91 m (excl. pedestal) 4.
Christ the Redeemer 38 m (incl. 8 m pedestal) 5.
Statue of David 5.17 m (excl. 2.5 m pedestal)
List of statues by height
–
Laykyun Setkyar
List of statues by height
–
Guan Yin of the South Sea of Sanya
11.
Europe
–
Europe is a continent that comprises the westernmost part of Eurasia. Europe is bordered by the Arctic Ocean to the north, the Atlantic Ocean to the west, yet the non-oceanic borders of Europe—a concept dating back to classical antiquity—are arbitrary. Europe covers about 10,180,000 square kilometres, or 2% of the Earths surface, politically, Europe is divided into about fifty sovereign states of which the Russian Federation is the largest and most populous, spanning 39% of the continent and comprising 15% of its population. Europe had a population of about 740 million as of 2015. Further from the sea, seasonal differences are more noticeable than close to the coast, Europe, in particular ancient Greece, was the birthplace of Western civilization. The fall of the Western Roman Empire, during the period, marked the end of ancient history. Renaissance humanism, exploration, art, and science led to the modern era, from the Age of Discovery onwards, Europe played a predominant role in global affairs. Between the 16th and 20th centuries, European powers controlled at times the Americas, most of Africa, Oceania. The Industrial Revolution, which began in Great Britain at the end of the 18th century, gave rise to economic, cultural, and social change in Western Europe. During the Cold War, Europe was divided along the Iron Curtain between NATO in the west and the Warsaw Pact in the east, until the revolutions of 1989 and fall of the Berlin Wall. In 1955, the Council of Europe was formed following a speech by Sir Winston Churchill and it includes all states except for Belarus, Kazakhstan and Vatican City. Further European integration by some states led to the formation of the European Union, the EU originated in Western Europe but has been expanding eastward since the fall of the Soviet Union in 1991. The European Anthem is Ode to Joy and states celebrate peace, in classical Greek mythology, Europa is the name of either a Phoenician princess or of a queen of Crete. The name contains the elements εὐρύς, wide, broad and ὤψ eye, broad has been an epithet of Earth herself in the reconstructed Proto-Indo-European religion and the poetry devoted to it. For the second part also the divine attributes of grey-eyed Athena or ox-eyed Hera. The same naming motive according to cartographic convention appears in Greek Ανατολή, Martin Litchfield West stated that phonologically, the match between Europas name and any form of the Semitic word is very poor. Next to these there is also a Proto-Indo-European root *h1regʷos, meaning darkness. Most major world languages use words derived from Eurṓpē or Europa to refer to the continent, in some Turkic languages the originally Persian name Frangistan is used casually in referring to much of Europe, besides official names such as Avrupa or Evropa
Europe
–
Reconstruction of
Herodotus ' world map
Europe
Europe
–
A medieval
T and O map from 1472 showing the three continents as domains of the sons of
Noah — Asia to Sem (
Shem), Europe to Iafeth (
Japheth), and Africa to Cham (
Ham)
Europe
–
Early modern depiction of
Europa regina ('Queen Europe') and the mythical
Europa of the 8th century BC.
12.
Woman
–
A woman is a female human. The term woman is usually reserved for an adult, with the girl being the usual term for a female child or adolescent. The term woman is sometimes used to identify a female human, regardless of age. Women with typical genetic development are usually capable of giving birth from puberty until menopause, the spelling of woman in English has progressed over the past millennium from wīfmann to wīmmann to wumman, and finally, the modern spelling woman. In Old English, wīfmann meant female human, whereas wēr meant male human, the medial labial consonants f and m in wīfmann coalesced into the modern form woman, while the initial element, which meant female, underwent semantic narrowing to the sense of a married woman. It is a misconception that the term woman is etymologically connected to womb. Womb is actually from the Old English word wambe meaning stomach, the symbol for the planet Venus is the sign also used in biology for the female sex. It is a representation of the goddess Venuss hand-mirror or an abstract symbol for the goddess. The Venus symbol also represented femininity, and in ancient alchemy stood for copper, alchemists constructed the symbol from a circle above an equilateral cross. Womanhood is the period in a life after she has passed through childhood and adolescence. The word woman can be used generally, to any female human or specifically. The word girl originally meant young person of either sex in English, in particular, previously common terms such as office girl are no longer widely used. Referring to a female human as a woman may, in such a culture, imply that she is sexually experienced. There are various words used to refer to the quality of being a woman, menarche, the onset of menstruation, occurs on average at age 12-13. The earliest women whose names are known through archaeology include, Neithhotep, the wife of Narmer, merneith, consort and regent of ancient Egypt during the first dynasty. She may have been ruler of Egypt in her own right, merit-Ptah, also lived in Egypt and is the earliest known female physician and scientist. Peseshet, a physician in Ancient Egypt, puabi, or Shubad – queen of Ur whose tomb was discovered with many expensive artifacts. Other known pre-Sargonic queens of Ur include Ashusikildigir, Ninbanda, kugbau, a taverness from Kish chosen by the Nippur priesthood to become hegemonic ruler of Sumer, and in later ages deified as Kubaba
Woman
–
the
Queen of Sheba
Woman
–
"The Life & Age of Woman - Stages of Woman's Life from the Cradle to the Grave",1849
Woman
–
Woman nursing her infant
Woman
–
Pregnant woman
13.
World
–
The world is the planet Earth and all life upon it, including human civilization. In a philosophical context, the world is the whole of the physical Universe, in a theological context, the world is the material or the profane sphere, as opposed to the celestial, spiritual, transcendent or sacred. The end of the world refers to scenarios of the end of human history. World history is understood as spanning the major geopolitical developments of about five millennia. World population is the sum of all human populations at any time, similarly, world economy is the sum of the economies of all societies or countries, terms like world championship, gross world product, world flags imply the sum or combination of all current-day sovereign states. The English word world comes from the Old English weorold, weorld, worold, a compound of wer man and eld age, which thus means roughly Age of Man. The Old English is a reflex of the Common Germanic *wira-alđiz, also reflected in Old Saxon werold, Old High German weralt, the corresponding word in Latin is mundus, literally clean, elegant, itself a loan translation of Greek cosmos orderly arrangement. Earth, on the hand, refers to the planet as a physical entity. World was also used to mean the material universe, or the cosmos, The worlde is an apte frame of heauen and earthe. The earth was often described as the center of the world, World can also be used attributively, to mean global, relating to the whole world, forming usages such as world community or world canonical texts. By extension, a world may refer to any planet or heavenly body, especially when it is thought of as inhabited, World, in its original sense, when qualified, can also refer to a particular domain of human experience. The world of work describes paid work and the pursuit of a career, in all its aspects, to distinguish it from home life. The fashion world describes the environment of the designers, fashion houses, historically, the New World vs. the Old World, referring to the parts of the world colonized in the wake of the age of discovery. Now mostly used in zoology and botany, as in New World monkey, in philosophy, the term world has several possible meanings. In some contexts, it refers to everything that makes up reality or the physical universe, in others, it can mean have a specific ontological sense. The question of what the world is has by no means been settled, in his Allegory of the Cave, Plato distinguishes between forms and ideas and imagines two distinct worlds, the sensible world and the intelligible world. In Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegels philosophy of history, the expression Weltgeschichte ist Weltgericht is used to assert the view that History is what judges men, their actions, science is born from the desire to transform the World in relation to Man, its final end is technical application. The World as Will and Representation is the work of Arthur Schopenhauer
World
–
"
The Blue Marble " photograph of Earth.
World
–
The Garden of Earthly Delights triptych by
Hieronymus Bosch (c. 1503) shows the "garden" of mundane pleasures flanked by
Paradise and
Hell. The exterior panel shows the world before the appearance of humanity, depicted as a
disc enclosed in a
sphere.
World
–
Yggdrasil, a modern attempt to reconstruct the Norse
world tree which connects the
heavens, the world, and the
underworld.
14.
Structural engineering
–
They can also be involved in the design of machinery, medical equipment, and vehicles where structural integrity affects functioning and safety. Structural engineering theory is based upon applied physical laws and empirical knowledge of the performance of different materials. Structural engineering design utilizes a number of relatively simple structural elements to build complex structural systems, Structural engineers are responsible for making creative and efficient use of funds, structural elements and materials to achieve these goals. Structural engineers are responsible for engineering design and analysis, entry-level structural engineers may design the individual structural elements of a structure, for example the beams, columns, and floors of a building. More experienced engineers may be responsible for the design and integrity of an entire system. Structural engineering has existed since humans first started to construct their own structures and it became a more defined and formalized profession with the emergence of the architecture as distinct profession from the engineering during the industrial revolution in the late 19th century. Until then, the architect and the engineer were usually one. Only with the development of specialized knowledge of theories that emerged during the 19th and early 20th centuries. The role of a structural engineer today involves a significant understanding of both static and dynamic loading, and the structures that are available to resist them. The complexity of modern structures often requires a great deal of creativity from the engineer in order to ensure the structures support and resist the loads they are subjected to. A structural engineer will typically have a four or five year undergraduate degree, Structural engineers are licensed or accredited by different learned societies and regulatory bodies around the world. The aim of that association is to exchange knowledge and to advance the practice of engineering worldwide in the service of the profession. Structural engineering dates back to 2700 B. C. E, when the step pyramid for Pharaoh Djoser was built by Imhotep, the first engineer in history known by name. Pyramids were the most common major structures built by ancient civilizations because the form of a pyramid is inherently stable. The limestone blocks were taken from a quarry near the build site, since the compressive strength of limestone is anywhere from 30 to 250 MPa, the blocks will not fail under compression. Therefore, the strength of the pyramid stems from the material properties of the stones from which it was built rather than the pyramids geometry. Throughout ancient and medieval history most architectural design and construction was carried out by artisans, such as masons and carpenters. No theory of structures existed, and understanding of how structures stood up was extremely limited, knowledge was retained by guilds and seldom supplanted by advances
Structural engineering
–
Structural engineering deals with the making of complex systems like the
International Space Station, seen here from the departing
Space Shuttle Atlantis.
Structural engineering
–
Structural engineers investigating NASA's Mars-bound
spacecraft, the
Phoenix Mars Lander
Structural engineering
–
The
Eiffel Tower is a historical achievement of structural engineering.
Structural engineering
–
Pont du Gard, France, a
Roman era aqueduct circa 19 BC.
15.
Prestressed concrete
–
Prestressed concrete is a concrete construction material which is placed under compression prior to it supporting any applied loads. A more technical definition is Structural concrete in which stresses have been introduced to reduce potential tensile stresses in the concrete resulting from loads. This compression is produced by the tensioning of high-strength tendons located within or adjacent to the concrete volume, tendons may consist of single wires, multi-wire strands or threaded bars, and are most commonly made from high-tensile steels, carbon fibre or aramid fibre. This can result in improved structural capacity and/or serviceability compared to reinforced concrete in many situations. Typical applications range through high-rise buildings, residential slabs, foundation systems, bridge and dam structures, silos and tanks, industrial pavements, first used in the late-nineteenth century, prestressed concrete has developed to encompass a wide range of technologies. Tensioning of the tendons may be undertaken either before or after the concrete itself is cast, tendons may be located either within the concrete volume, or wholly outside of it. Whereas pre-tensioned concrete by definition uses tendons directly bonded to the concrete, pre-tensioned concrete is a variant of prestressed concrete where the tendons are tensioned prior to the concrete being cast. Pre-tensioning is a common technique, where the resulting concrete element is manufactured remotely from the final structure location. It requires strong, stable end-anchorage points between which the tendons are stretched and these anchorages form the ends of a casting bed which may be many times the length of the concrete element being fabricated. Higher bond strength in early-age concrete allows more economical fabrication as it speeds production, to promote this, pre-tensioned tendons are usually composed of isolated single wires or strands, as this provides a greater surface area for bond action than bundled strand tendons. Unlike those of post-tensioned concrete, the tendons of pre-tensioned concrete elements generally form straight lines between end-anchorages, where profiled or harped tendons are required, one or more intermediate deviators are located between the ends of the tendon to hold the tendon to the desired non-linear alignment during tensioning. Such deviators usually act against substantial forces, and hence require a robust casting bed foundation system, pre-tensioned concrete is most commonly used for the fabrication of structural beams, floor slabs, hollow-core planks, balconies, lintels, driven piles, water tanks and concrete pipes. Post-tensioned concrete is a variant of prestressed concrete where the tendons are tensioned after the concrete structure has been cast. The tendons are not placed in contact with the concrete. At each end of a tendon is an anchorage assembly firmly fixed to the surrounding concrete, once the concrete has been cast and set, the tendons are tensioned by pulling the tendon ends through the anchorages while pressing against the concrete. The large forces required to tension the tendons result in a significant permanent compression being applied to the once the tendon is locked-off at the anchorage. Casting the tendon ducts/sleeves into the concrete before any tensioning occurs allows them to be profiled to any desired shape including incorporating vertical and/or horizontal curvature. Bonded post-tensioning has prestressing tendons permanently bonded to the concrete by the in situ grouting of their encapsulating ducting following tendon tensioning
Prestressed concrete
–
Stressed ribbon pedestrian bridge,
Grants Pass, Oregon, USA
Prestressed concrete
–
Prestressed concrete diagram
Prestressed concrete
–
Multistrand post-tensioning anchor.
Prestressed concrete
–
1. Rolls of post-tension cables
16.
Wire rope
–
Wire rope is rope made from wire. It consists of several strands of metal wire laid into a helix, initially wrought iron wires were used, but today steel is the main material used for wire ropes. Historically wire rope evolved from wrought iron chains, which had a record of mechanical failure. While flaws in chain links or solid steel bars can lead to catastrophic failure, friction between the individual wires and strands, as a consequence of their twist, further compensates for any flaws. Wire ropes were developed starting with mining hoist applications in the 1830s, Wire ropes are used dynamically for lifting and hoisting in cranes and elevators, and for transmission of mechanical power. Wire rope is used to transmit force in mechanisms, such as a Bowden cable or the control surfaces of an airplane connected to levers. Also, aircraft cables are available in smaller diameters than wire rope, for example, aircraft cables are available in 3/64 in. Diameter while most wire ropes begin at a 1/4 in, static wire ropes are used to support structures such as suspension bridges or as guy wires to support towers. An aerial tramway relies on wire rope to support and move cargo overhead, modern wire rope was invented by the German mining engineer Wilhelm Albert in the years between 1831 and 1834 for use in mining in the Harz Mountains in Clausthal, Lower Saxony, Germany. It was quickly accepted because it proved superior to ropes made of hemp or to metal chains, Wilhelm Alberts first ropes consisted of three strands consisting of four wires each. In 1840, Scotsman Robert Stirling Newall improved the process further, the decades were witness to a burgeoning increase in deep shaft mining in both Europe and North America as surface mineral deposits were exhausted and miner had to chase layers along inclined layers. To drive their first shafts into lower slopes beginning Lansford and its Schuylkill County twin-town Coaldale, the German engineering firm of Adolf Bleichert & Co. was founded in 1874 and began to build bicable aerial tramways for mining in the Ruhr Valley. Adolf Bleichert & Co. went on to hundreds of aerial tramways around the world, from Alaska to Argentina, Australia. The Bleichert company also built hundreds of aerial tramways for both the Imperial German Army and the Wehrmacht, in the last half of the 19th century, wire rope systems were used as a means of transmitting mechanical power including for the new cable cars. Wire rope systems cost one-tenth as much and had lower friction losses than line shafts, because of these advantages, wire rope systems were used to transmit power for a distance of a few miles or kilometers. In America wire rope was later manufactured by John A. Roebling, forming the basis for his success in suspension bridge building, Roebling introduced a number of innovations in the design, materials and manufacture of wire rope. Steel wires for wire ropes are made of non-alloy carbon steel with a carbon content of 0.4 to 0. 95%. The very high strength of the wires enables wire ropes to support large tensile forces
Wire rope
–
Inside view of a
wind turbine tower, showing the wire ropes used as tendons.
Wire rope
–
Steel wire rope (right hand lay)
Wire rope
–
Left-hand ordinary lay (LHOL) wire rope (close-up). Right-hand lay strands are laid into a left-hand lay rope.
Wire rope
–
Right-hand Lang's lay (RHLL) wire rope (close-up). Right-hand lay strands are laid into a right-hand lay rope.
17.
Ostankino Tower
–
Ostankino Tower is a television and radio tower in Moscow, Russia, owned by the Moscow branch of unitary enterprise Russian TV and Radio Broadcasting Network. Standing 540.1 metres tall, Ostankino was designed by Nikolai Nikitin and it is currently the tallest freestanding structure in Europe and 11th tallest in the world. The tower was the first free-standing structure to exceed 500 m in height, Ostankino was built to mark the 50th anniversary of the October Revolution. It is named after the Ostankino district of Moscow in which it is located, construction began in 1963 and was completed in 1967. Extensive use of prestressed concrete resulted in a simple and sturdy structure that was a masterpiece of Soviet engineering in the period it was built. It surpassed the Empire State Building to become the tallest free-standing structure in the world and it held this record for nine years until the CN Tower was completed in Toronto, Canada in 1976, which surpassed its height by 13 metres. The Ostankino Tower remained the second-tallest structure in the world for another 31 years until the Burj Khalifa surpassed both it and the CN Tower in height in 2007, the Ostankino Tower has remained the tallest structure in Europe for 49 years. A1994 plan to increase the height to 561 metres by adding an antenna was not implemented for lack of funding. The tower caught fire on 27 August 2000, killing four people, three firefighters died in the attempt to extinguish the fire, and one lift operator died when her elevator cabin crashed to the ground level due to the fire. In addition, television and radio signals were disrupted around Moscow, the fire necessitated an evacuation of all visitors and staff from those locations. According to Russian news agencies, the evacuation was complete 90 minutes after the start of the fire, the loss was substantial due to the age and poor maintenance of the electronic equipment, much of which was installed in the 1960s. In addition, the tower had become increasingly packed with equipment, the failure of the fire suppression systems allowed the fire to destroy most of the towers interior. Temporary firewalls of asbestos placed 70 metres up stopped further spread, the fire knocked out virtually all television broadcasts in Moscow and the surrounding regions. The fire caused the upper spire to tilt slightly, triggering fears the tower might collapse. Subsequent inspection determined that although the structure sustained damage, the tower was not in danger of collapse. Efforts began immediately to rebuild the tower, which proved to be a long, Russian President Vladimir Putin stated that This latest accident shows the shape of our vital installations and the overall state of our country. We should not fail to see problems in the country behind this accident. Whether or not such accidents happen again in the future depend on how we work in this vital direction
Ostankino Tower
–
Ostankino Tower in August 2012
Ostankino Tower
–
The tower as compared to high-rise apartments
Ostankino Tower
–
360° panorama from observation deck of the Ostankino TV tower
Ostankino Tower
–
The tower on fire on 27 August 2000
18.
Moscow
–
Moscow is the capital and most populous city of Russia, with 13.2 million residents within the city limits and 17.8 million within the urban area. Moscow has the status of a Russian federal city, Moscow is a major political, economic, cultural, and scientific center of Russia and Eastern Europe, as well as the largest city entirely on the European continent. Moscow is the northernmost and coldest megacity and metropolis on Earth and it is home to the Ostankino Tower, the tallest free standing structure in Europe, the Federation Tower, the tallest skyscraper in Europe, and the Moscow International Business Center. Moscow is situated on the Moskva River in the Central Federal District of European Russia, the city is well known for its architecture, particularly its historic buildings such as Saint Basils Cathedral with its brightly colored domes. Moscow is the seat of power of the Government of Russia, being the site of the Moscow Kremlin, the Moscow Kremlin and Red Square are also one of several World Heritage Sites in the city. Both chambers of the Russian parliament also sit in the city and it is recognized as one of the citys landmarks due to the rich architecture of its 200 stations. In old Russian the word also meant a church administrative district. The demonym for a Moscow resident is москвич for male or москвичка for female, the name of the city is thought to be derived from the name of the Moskva River. There have been proposed several theories of the origin of the name of the river and its cognates include Russian, музга, muzga pool, puddle, Lithuanian, mazgoti and Latvian, mazgāt to wash, Sanskrit, majjati to drown, Latin, mergō to dip, immerse. There exist as well similar place names in Poland like Mozgawa, the original Old Russian form of the name is reconstructed as *Москы, *Mosky, hence it was one of a few Slavic ū-stem nouns. From the latter forms came the modern Russian name Москва, Moskva, in a similar manner the Latin name Moscovia has been formed, later it became a colloquial name for Russia used in Western Europe in the 16th–17th centuries. From it as well came English Muscovy, various other theories, having little or no scientific ground, are now largely rejected by contemporary linguists. The surface similarity of the name Russia with Rosh, an obscure biblical tribe or country, the oldest evidence of humans on the territory of Moscow dates from the Neolithic. Within the modern bounds of the city other late evidence was discovered, on the territory of the Kremlin, Sparrow Hills, Setun River and Kuntsevskiy forest park, etc. The earliest East Slavic tribes recorded as having expanded to the upper Volga in the 9th to 10th centuries are the Vyatichi and Krivichi, the Moskva River was incorporated as part of Rostov-Suzdal into the Kievan Rus in the 11th century. By AD1100, a settlement had appeared on the mouth of the Neglinnaya River. The first known reference to Moscow dates from 1147 as a place of Yuri Dolgoruky. At the time it was a town on the western border of Vladimir-Suzdal Principality
Moscow
–
Left to right, top to bottom:
Moscow State University,
Spasskaya Clocktower,
Cathedral of Christ the Saviour;
Bolshoi Theatre,
Moscow International Business Center;
Red Square
Moscow
–
Tatar raid upon Moscow
Moscow
–
Map of Moscow, 1784
Moscow
–
Red Square, painting by
Fedor Alekseev, 1801
19.
Sword
–
A sword is a long bladed weapon intended for slashing or thrusting. The precise definition of the term varies with the epoch or the geographical region under consideration. A sword consists of a blade attached to a hilt. The blade can be straight or curved, thrusting swords have a pointed tip on the blade, and tend to be straighter, slashing swords have sharpened cutting edge on one or both sides of the blade, and are more likely to be curved. Many swords are designed for thrusting and slashing. Historically, the sword developed in the Bronze Age, evolving from the dagger, the later Iron Age sword remained fairly short and without a crossguard. The word sword continues the Old English, sweord, the use of a sword is known as swordsmanship or as fencing. In the Early Modern period, western sword design diverged into two forms, the thrusting swords and the sabers. The thrusting swords such as the rapier and eventually the smallsword were designed to impale their targets quickly and their long and straight yet light and well balanced design made them highly maneuverable and deadly in a duel but fairly ineffective when used in a slashing or chopping motion. A well aimed lunge and thrust could end a fight in seconds with just the swords point, the saber and similar blades such as the cutlass were built more heavily and were more typically used in warfare. Built for slashing and chopping at multiple enemies, often from horseback, most sabers also had sharp points and double edged blades, making them capable of piercing soldier after soldier in a cavalry charge. Sabers continued to see use until the early 20th century. The US Navy kept tens of thousands of sturdy cutlasses in their armory well into World War II, non-European weapons called sword include single-edged weapons such as the Middle Eastern scimitar, the Chinese dao and the related Japanese katana. The Chinese jian is an example of a non-European double-edged sword, the first weapons that can be described as swords date to around 3300 BC. They have been found in Arslantepe, Turkey, are made from arsenical bronze, some of them are inlaid with silver. The sword developed from the dagger when the construction of longer blades became possible, from the late 3rd millennium BC in the Middle East, first in arsenic copper, then in tin-bronze. Blades longer than 60 cm were rare and not practical until the late Bronze Age because the strength of bronze is relatively low. These are the type A swords of the Aegean Bronze Age, one of the most important, and longest-lasting, types swords of the European Bronze Age was the Naue II type, also known as Griffzungenschwert
Sword
–
Swiss
longsword, 15th- or 16th-century
Sword
–
Hallstatt swords
Sword
–
Apa-type swords, 17th-century BC.
Sword
–
The swords found together with the
Nebra skydisk, ca. 1600 BC.
20.
Plinth
–
In architecture, a plinth is the base or platform upon which a column, pedestal, statue, monument or structure rests. Gottfried Sempers The Four Elements of Architecture posited that the plinth, the hearth, the roof, the plinth usually rests directly on the ground or stylobate. According to Semper, the plinth exists to negotiate between a structure and the ground, Sempers theory has been influential in the development of architecture. Many houses in rural areas of Bangladesh are built on plinths. The word is used for the base of a cabinet or an audio turntable. In dam engineering, the plinth is the link between the ground and the dam, for the case of arch dams, the term is changed to pulvino
Plinth
–
An ancient Greek plinth.
Plinth
–
A Ming dynasty plinth
Plinth
–
Tōdai-ji plinth
Plinth
–
A plinth with tiger head and cloud pattern in the Wang Family Courtyard in Shanxi
21.
Volgograd Oblast
–
Volgograd Oblast is a federal subject of Russia. The population was 2,610,161 in the 2010 Census, borders length,2,221.9 kilometers Volgograd Oblast borders with Saratov, Rostov, Astrakhan, and Voronezh Oblasts, as well as with the Republic of Kalmykia of Russia and with Kazakhstan. Volgograd has more than 200 rivers and streams, the major ones include, The Volga River The Don River The Medveditsa River The Khopyor River Stalingrad Oblast was established on December 5,1936 on the territory of former Stalingrad Krai. The oblast was given its present name on November 10,1961, the Charter of Volgograd Oblast provides the fundamental law of the region. The Legislative Assembly of Volgograd Oblast is the provinces standing legislative body, the Legislative Assembly exercises its authority by passing laws, resolutions, and other legal acts and by supervising the implementation and observance of the laws and other legal acts passed by it. It is estimated that the proportion of ethnicities in this group is the same as that of the declared group, according to a 2012 official survey 54. In addition, 18% of the population declares to be spiritual but not religious, 12% is atheist, and 6. 5% follows other religions or did not give an answer to the question. Governor of Volgograd Oblast is Anatoliy Brovko Both the flag and the coat of arms of Volgograd Oblast include an image of The Motherland Calls, primary branches of economics are agriculture, food production, heavy industry, gas and petroleum refining. Volga Hydroelectric Station operates on the Volga River, list of Chairmen of the Volgograd Oblast Duma Volgograd floating landing Волгоградская областная Дума. Закона №90-ОД от10 июля2015 г, «О внесении изменений в статью2 Устава Волгоградской области от24 февраля2012 г. Вступил в силу по истечении десяти дней после дня официального опубликования, Опубликован, Волгоградская правда, №35,29 февраля2012 г. Исполнительный комитет Волгоградского областного Совета депутатов трудящихся, Административно-территориальное деление на1 июля1968 года. Official website of Volgograd Oblast Central Eurasian Information Resource, Images of Volgograd Oblast - University of Washington Digital Collections
Volgograd Oblast
–
Building of the Oblast Duma and Oblast Government
Volgograd Oblast
22.
Marshal of the Soviet Union
–
Marshal of the Soviet Union was the highest military rank of the Soviet Union. The rank of Marshal of the Soviet Union was created in 1935, forty-one people held the rank of Marshal of the Soviet Union. The equivalent naval rank was until 1955 Admiral of the Fleet, both ranks were comparable to NATO rank codes OF10, and to the five-star rank in anglophone armed forces. The military rank of Marshal of the Soviet Union was established by a decree of the Soviet Cabinet, of these, Blyukher, Tukhachevsky and Yegorov were executed during Stalins Great Purge of 1937–38. On 7 May 1940, three new Marshals were appointed, the new Peoples Commissar of Defence, Semyon Timoshenko, Boris Shaposhnikov, and Grigory Kulik. During World War II, Kulik was demoted for incompetence, and these included Georgy Zhukov, Ivan Konev and Konstantin Rokossovsky to name a few. In 1943, Stalin himself was made a Marshal of the Soviet Union and these non-military Marshals were joined in 1947 by politician Nikolai Bulganin. Two Marshals were executed in postwar purges, Kulik in 1950 and Beria in 1953, the last Marshal of the Soviet Union was Dmitry Yazov, appointed in 1990, who was imprisoned after the failed coup against Mikhail Gorbachev in 1991. Marshal Sergei Akhromeev committed suicide in 1991 on the fall of the Soviet Union, the Marshals fell into three generational groups. Those who had gained their reputations during the Russian Civil War and these included both those who were purged in 1937–38, and those who held high commands in the early years of World War II. All of the latter except Shaposhnikov and Timoshenko proved out-of-step with modern warfare and were removed from commanding positions and those who made their reputations in World War II and assumed high commands in the latter part of the war. These included Zhukov, Vasilievsky, Konev, Rokossovsky, Malinovsky, Tolbukhin and those who assumed high command in the Cold War era. All of these were officers in World War II, but their higher commands were held in the Warsaw Pact or as Soviet Defence Ministers and these included Grechko, Yakubovsky, Kulikov, Ogarkov, Akhromeev, and Yazov. All Marshals in the category had been officers in World War II, except Brezhnev, who had been a military commissar, and Ustinov. Even Yazov, who was 20 when the war ended, had been a platoon commander, the rank was abolished with the dissolution of the Soviet Union in December 1991. It was succeeded in the new Russia by the rank of Marshal of the Russian Federation, which has held by only one person, Marshal Igor Sergeyev. Note, All Marshals of the Soviet Union, with the exception of Non-Military Marshals had at least started their careers in the Army. The Service Arms listed are the services they served in during their tenures as Marshals of the Soviet Union
Marshal of the Soviet Union
–
Marshal's Star - big
Marshal of the Soviet Union
–
The first five marshals of the Soviet Union from left to right: Tukhachevsky, Budyonny, Voroshilov, Blyukher and Yegorov.
Marshal of the Soviet Union
–
Marshals G.K. Zhukov (center) and K.K. Rokossovsky (right) in 1945
Marshal of the Soviet Union
–
Political and religious leaders
23.
Vasily Ivanovich Chuikov
–
Born into a peasant family in the village of Serebryanye Prudy in the Tula region south of Moscow, he was the eighth of twelve children and the fifth of eight sons. At the age of twelve, he left school and his home to earn his living in a factory in St. Petersburg. Chuikov and all his brothers became soldiers and fought in the Russian Civil War, during the turmoil of the Russian Revolution of 1917, Chuikov became unemployed. Later the same year, an older brother arranged for Chuikov to be recruited into the Red Guards, the year after, in 1918, he joined the Red Army. In October 1918, Chuikov saw active service when he was sent to the Southern Front as a deputy commander to fight against the White Army. In the spring of 1919, he became commander of the 40th Regiment, Chuikovs record of service during the Civil War was distinguished. In the fighting from 1919 to 1920 he received two awards of the Order of the Red Banner for bravery and heroism and he was wounded four times—one, in Poland in 1920, left a fragment in his left arm that could not be operated on. It led to paralysis and caused him to lose temporary use of his arm. Chuikov carried this war wound for the rest of his life and he left his regiment in 1921 to continue his studies at the Frunze Military Academy, from which he graduated in 1925. Chuikov commanded the 4th Army in the Soviet invasion of Poland in 1939 and he commanded the 9th Army in the Russo-Finnish War of 1940. His army was defeated by the Finns at Suomussalmi and Raate Road and he was then sent to China as an adviser to Chiang Kai-shek. In May 1942, the USSR recalled him, according to Chuikovs memoirs, his recall was due to Nationalist China claiming that the USSR was providing military aid as part of an attempt to draw the USSR into the Second Sino-Japanese War. On returning to Moscow, Chuikov was placed in command of the 64th Army, here they could be destroyed with Molotov cocktails and Russian artillery operating at close range. This tactic also rendered the German Luftwaffe ineffective, since Stuka dive-bombers could not attack Red Army positions without endangering their own forces, after the victory at Stalingrad, the 62nd Army was redesignated the Soviet 8th Guards Army. Chuikovs advance through Poland was characterized by massive advances across difficult terrain and he accepted the surrender of Berlins forces from General Helmuth Weidling. Chuikov appeared in the documentary film Berlin, directed by Yuli Raizman, while serving at that post, on 11 March 1955 he was promoted to Marshal of the Soviet Union. From 1960 to 1964, he was the Commander-in-Chief of the Soviet Armys Ground Forces and he also served as the Chief of the Civil Defense from 1961 until his retirement in 1972. From 1961 until his death, he was a member of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union
Vasily Ivanovich Chuikov
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Lieutenant General Vasily Ivanovich Chuikov (prior to 1943)
Vasily Ivanovich Chuikov
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The tombstone of Marshal Vasily Chuikov
24.
Sniper
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Sniping requires the development of basic infantry skills to a high degree of skill. A snipers training incorporates a variety of subjects designed to increase value as a force multiplier. The art of sniping requires learning and repetitively practicing these skills until mastered, a sniper must be highly trained in long range rifle marksmanship and field craft skills to ensure maximum effective engagements with minimum risk. The verb to snipe originated in the 1770s among soldiers in British India in reference to shooting snipe, the agent noun sniper appears by the 1820s. The term sniper was first attested in 1824 in the sense of the word sharpshooter, a somewhat older term is sharp shooter, a calque of 18th-century German Scharfschütze, in use in British newspapers as early as 1801. According to figures released by the United States Department of Defense, the average number of rounds expended by U. S. military snipers to kill one enemy soldier is 1.3 rounds. According to the United States Army, the soldier will hit a man-sized target 10 percent of the time at 300 meters using the M16A2 rifle. Graduates of the United States Army Sniper School are expected to achieve 90 percent first-round hits at 600 meters, different countries use different military doctrines regarding snipers in military units, settings, and tactics.50 BMG, like the Barrett M82, McMillan Tac-50, and Denel NTW-20. Soviet- and Russian-derived military doctrines include squad-level snipers, snipers have increasingly been demonstrated as useful by US and UK forces in the recent Iraq campaign in a fire support role to cover the movement of infantry, especially in urban areas. Military snipers from the US, UK, and other countries that adopt their military doctrine are typically deployed in two-man sniper teams consisting of a shooter and spotter, a common practice is for a shooter and a spotter to take turns in order to avoid eye fatigue. A sniper team would be armed with its long weapon. Sniper rifles are classified as crew-served, as the term is used in the United States military, a sniper team consists of a combination of one or more shooters with force protection elements and support personnel, such as a spotter or a flanker. Both spotter and flanker carries additional ammunition and associated equipment, the spotter detects, observes, and assigns targets and watches for the results of the shot. Using a spotting scope and/or rangefinder, the spotter will also read the wind by using physical indicators and it is not unusual for the spotter to be equipped with a notepad and a laptop computer specifically for performing these calculations. Law enforcement snipers, commonly called police snipers, and military snipers differ in ways, including their areas of operation. A police sharpshooter is part of an operation and usually takes part in relatively short missions. Police forces typically deploy such sharpshooters in hostage scenarios and this differs from a military sniper, who operates as part of a larger army, engaged in warfare. Sometimes as part of a SWAT team, police snipers are deployed alongside negotiators and an assault team trained for close quarters combat
Sniper
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Royal Marines snipers with
L115A1 sniper rifles
Sniper
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French Foreign Legion snipers using the
Hecate II (front) and the
FR-F2 (back) in
Afghanistan
Sniper
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Over-watch being provided by an army sergeant during a high level meeting. (Baghdad, Iraq)
Sniper
–
A
U.S. Army sniper using an Barrett M82
25.
Vasily Zaytsev
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Vasily Grigoryevich Zaytsev was a Soviet sniper and a Hero of the Soviet Union during World War II. Prior to 10 November, he killed 32 Axis soldiers with the standard-issue Mosin–Nagant rifle, between 10 November 1942 and 17 December 1942, during the Battle of Stalingrad, he killed 225 soldiers and officers of the Wehrmacht and other Axis armies, including 11 enemy snipers. Zaytsev served in the Soviet Navy as a clerk in Vladivostok, when Germany invaded the Soviet Union, Zaytsev, like many of his comrades, volunteered to be transferred to the front line. He was a petty officer in the Navy and was assigned the rank of senior warrant officer upon transfer to the army. He was eventually assigned to the 1047th Rifle Regiment of the 284th Tomsk Rifle Division, during Zaytsevs career as a sniper, he would conceal himself in various locations – for example, on high ground, under rubble, or in water pipes. After a few kills, he would change his position, together with his partner Nikolai Kulikov, Zaytsev would exercise his hide and sting tactics. One of Zaytsev’s common tactics was to one large area from three positions, with two men at each point – a sniper and a scout. This tactic, known as the “sixes”, is still in use today and was implemented during the war in Chechnya, Zaytsev took part in the Battle of Stalingrad until January 1943, when a mortar attack injured his eyes. He was attended to by Vladimir Filatov, who is credited with restoring Zaytsevs sight, on 22 February 1943, Zaytsev was awarded the title Hero of the Soviet Union. He then returned to the front and finished the war at the Battle of the Seelow Heights in Germany and he became a member of the Communist Party in 1943. After the war, Zaytsev settled in Kiev, where he studied at a university before obtaining employment as an engineer. He was initially buried in Kiev despite his final request to be buried at Volgograd, on 31 January 2006, Vasily Zaytsev was reburied on the Mamayev Kurgan in Stalingrad with full military honors. Zaytsevs dying wish was to be buried at the monument to the defenders of Stalingrad and his coffin was carried next to a monument where his famous quote is written, For us there was no land beyond the Volga. Colonel Donald Paquette of the U. S, sniper School was present and laid a wreath as a sign of respect to a legendary sniper. U. S. Army News quoted Colonel Paquette, Vasily Zaytsev is a legend and every American sniper must memorize his tactics and he is a legend amongst snipers. Zaytsev indicates in his own memoirs that a three-day duel did indeed occur, however, there is currently no available evidence that any Major Erwin König ever existed, despite the claim made by the Armed Forces Museum of Moscow to be in possession of his telescopic sight. But as the duel claimed by Zaytsev has never officially determined to be fiction, historians consider it neither proven nor disproven. The video game Destiny allows players to select and use a rifle named No Land Beyond, in recognition of Zaytsev and his quote
Vasily Zaytsev
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Zaytsev in December 1942
Vasily Zaytsev
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Zaytsev, left, in Stalingrad, December 1942
Vasily Zaytsev
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Zaytsev's grave on the
Mamayev Kurgan
26.
Ancient Greek sculpture
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Ancient Greek sculpture is the sculpture of ancient Greece. Modern scholarship identifies three major stages, frequent subjects were the battles, mythology, and rulers of the area historically known as Ancient Greece. Smaller works were in a variety of materials, many of them precious. The ores for bronze were also easy to obtain. Marble was mostly found around the Parthenon and other major Greek buildings, many copies of the Roman period are marble versions of works originally in bronze. Ordinary limestone was used in the Archaic period, but thereafter, except in areas of modern Italy with no local marble, only for architectural sculpture, plaster or stucco was sometimes used for the hair only. Many statues were given jewellery, as can be seen from the holes for attaching it, by the early 19th century, the systematic excavation of ancient Greek sites had brought forth a plethora of sculptures with traces of notably multicolored surfaces, some of which were still visible. It was not until published findings by German archaeologist Vinzenz Brinkmann in the late 20th and he analyzed the pigments of the original paint to discover their composition. Brinkmann made several painted replicas of Greek statues that went on tour around the world, museums that hosted the exhibit included the Glyptotek Museum in Munich, the Vatican Museum, and the National Archaeological Museum in Athens, et al. The collection made its American debut at Harvard University in the Fall of 2007 and it is commonly thought that the earliest incarnation of Greek sculpture was in the form of wooden cult statues, first described by Pausanias as xoana. No such statues survive, and the descriptions of them are vague, the first piece of Greek statuary to be reassembled since is probably the Lefkandi Centaur, a terra cotta sculpture found on the island of Euboea, dated c.920 BCE. The statue was constructed in parts, before being dismembered and buried in two separate graves, the centaur has an intentional mark on its knee, which has led researchers to postulate that the statue might portray Cheiron, presumably kneeling wounded from Herakles arrow. If so, it would be the earliest known depiction of myth in the history of Greek sculpture, the forms from the geometrical period were chiefly terra cotta figurines, bronzes, and ivories. The bronzes are chiefly tripod cauldrons, and freestanding figures or groups, typical works of the era include the Karditsa warrior and the many examples of the equestrian statuette. The repertory of this work is not confined to standing men and horses, however, as vase paintings of the time also depict imagery of stags, birds, beetles, hares. There are no inscriptions on early-to-middle geometric sculpture, until the appearance of the Mantiklos Apollo of the early 7th century BCE found in Thebes, the inscription is a declaration of the statuette to Apollo, followed by a request for favors in return. Apart from the novelty of recording its own purpose, this sculpture adapts the formulae of oriental bronzes, as seen in the shorter more triangular face and slightly advancing left leg. This is sometimes seen as anticipating the greater freedom of the 7th century BCE and, as such
Ancient Greek sculpture
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Athena in the workshop of a sculptor working on a marble horse,
Attic red-figure
kylix, 480 BCE,
Staatliche Antikensammlungen (Inv. 2650)
Ancient Greek sculpture
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Natural
marble
Ancient Greek sculpture
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The
Victorious Youth (c. 310 BCE). A remarkably weather-preserved bronze statue of a Greek athlete in
Contrapposto pose.
27.
Winged Victory of Samothrace
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The Winged Victory of Samothrace, also called the Nike of Samothrace, is a marble Hellenistic sculpture of Nike, that was created about the 2nd century BC. Since 1884, it has been displayed at the Louvre and is one of the most celebrated sculptures in the world. H. W. Janson described it as the greatest masterpiece of Hellenistic sculpture, datings based on stylistic evaluation have been equally variable, ranging across the same three centuries, but perhaps tending to an earlier date. The statue is 8 feet high and it was created not only to honor the goddess, Nike, but also to honor a sea battle. It conveys a sense of action and triumph as well as portraying artful flowing drapery, Modern excavations suggest that the Victory occupied a niche above a theater and also suggest it accompanied an altar that was within view of the ship monument of Demetrius I Poliorcetes. Rendered in grey and white Thasian and Parian marble, the figure originally formed part of the Samothrace temple complex dedicated to the Great gods, Megaloi Theoi. It stood on a pedestal of gray marble from Lartos representing the prow of a ship. Before she lost her arms, which have never been recovered, the statue’s outstretched right wing is a symmetric plaster version of the original left one. The different degree of finishing of the sides has led scholars to think that it was intended to be seen from three-quarters on the left, the sculptor is unknown, although Paul MacKendrick suggests that Pythokritos of Lindos is responsible. The Archaeological Museum of Samothrace continues to follow these originally established provenance, ceramic evidence discovered in recent excavations has revealed that the pedestal was set up about 200 BC, though some scholars still date it as early as 250 BC or as late as 180. Certainly, the parallels with figures and drapery from the Pergamon Altar seem strong, the evidence for a Rhodian commission of the statue has been questioned, however, and the closest artistic parallel to the Nike of Samothrace are figures depicted on Macedonian coins. Samothrace was an important sanctuary for the Hellenistic Macedonian kings, the most likely battle commemorated by this monument is, perhaps, the Battle of Cos in 255 BC, in which Antigonus II Gonatas of Macedonia won over the fleet of Ptolemy II of Egypt. In April 1863, the Victory was discovered by the French consul and amateur archaeologist Charles Champoiseau, the statue has been reassembled in stages since its discovery. The prow was reconstructed from marble debris at the site by Champoiseau in 1879, after 1884, the statue was positioned where it would visually dominate the Daru staircase. Since 1883, the figure has been displayed in the Louvre. In the autumn of 1939, the Winged Victory was removed from her perch in anticipation of the outbreak of World War II, all the museums of Paris were closed on August 25. Artwork and objects were packed for removal to locations deemed more safe outside Paris for safekeeping, on the night of September 3, the statue descended the staircase on a wooden ramp which was constructed across the steps. During the years of World War II, the statue sheltered in safety in the Château de Valençay along with the Venus de Milo and Michelangelos Slaves
Winged Victory of Samothrace
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The Winged Victory of Samothrace
Winged Victory of Samothrace
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The great statue was carefully lowered down a ramp in 1939 when it was removed from the Louvre and Paris for safekeeping.
Winged Victory of Samothrace
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The Winged Victory of Samothrace, side view.
Winged Victory of Samothrace
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The Winged Victory of Samothrace, before restoration.
28.
Magnitogorsk
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Magnitogorsk is an industrial city in Chelyabinsk Oblast, Russia, located on the eastern side of the extreme southern extent of the Ural Mountains by the Ural River. It was named after the Magnitnaya Mountain and it is the second largest city in Russia that is not the administrative center of any federal subject or district. Here the largest iron and steel works in the country is situated, Magnitnaya was founded in 1743 as part of the Orenburg Line of forts built during the reign of the Empress Elizabeth. By 1747, the settlement had been large enough to guide the building of a small wooden chapel named subsequently The Church of the Holy Trinity. Iron ore mining in this region back to 1752, when two entrepreneurs named Tverdysh and Myasnikov decided to check on the feasibility of mining in the area that became famous later. They managed to take advantage of the fact that the Magnitnaya mountain did not belong to anyone at that time. So, they secured it for themselves by way of petition to Empress Elizabeth, in 1759, the petition was eventually accepted, and they launched iron ore production. At this time, hundreds of foreign experts kept coming here in order to implement and direct the work. In 1928, a Soviet delegation arrived in Cleveland, Ohio to discuss with American consulting company Arthur G. McKee a plan to set up in Magnitogorsk a copy of the US Steel steel mill in Gary. The contract was four times increased and eventually the new plant had a capacity of four million tons annually. It was a showpiece of Soviet achievement, huge reserves of iron ore in the area made it a prime location to build a steel plant capable of challenging its Western rivals. However, a proportion of the workforce, as ex-peasants, typically had few industrial skills. To solve these issues, several hundred foreign specialists arrived to direct the work, however, by the time that May completed his plans for Magnitogorsk construction of both factory and housing had already started. The sprawling factory and enormous cleansing lakes had left little room available for development and this modification resulted in a city being more rope-like than linear. The book Behind the Urals, by John Scott, documents the development of Magnitogorsk during the 1930s. Scott discusses the fast-paced industrial and social developments during Stalins first five-year plan, in 1937, foreigners were told to exit and Magnitogorsk was declared a closed city. There is not much information about events and development of the city during the closed period. During perestroika the closed city status was removed and foreigners were allowed to visit the city again, with the depletion of the substantial local iron-ore reserves, Magnitogorsk has to import raw materials from Sokolvsko-Sarbaisky deposit in northern Kazakhstan
Magnitogorsk
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Magnitogorsk State Technical University
Magnitogorsk
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A steel production facility in Magnitogorsk in the 1930s
Magnitogorsk
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A bridge in Magnitogorsk
Magnitogorsk
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St. Nicholas Church
29.
Soviet War Memorial (Treptower Park)
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The Soviet War Memorial is a vast war memorial and military cemetery in Berlins Treptower Park. It was built to the design of the Soviet architect Yakov Belopolsky to commemorate 5,000 of the 80,000 Soviet soldiers who fell in the Battle of Berlin in April–May 1945 and it opened four years after World War II on May 8,1949. The Memorial served as the war memorial of East Germany. The monument is one of three Soviet memorials built in Berlin after the end of the war, the memorials are not only commemorative, but also serve as cemeteries for those killed. A competition was announced shortly after the end of the war for the design of the park, the sculptures, reliefs, and 2.5 meter diameter Flammenschalen were cast at the Kunstgießerei Lauchhammer in 1948. The memorial itself was built in Treptower Park on land occupied by a sports field. The memorial was completed in 1949, the stones and granite that were used in the construction came from the demolished New Reich Chancellery. Around the time of the fall of the Berlin wall, unknown persons vandalized parts of the memorial with anti-Soviet graffiti, the PDS claimed that the vandals were right-wing extremists and arranged a demonstration on January 3,1990,250,000 GDR citizens participated. Through the demonstrations, the newly formed party stayed true to the communist roots of its founding party, PDS chairman Gregor Gysi took this opportunity to call for a Verfassungsschutz for the GDR, and questioned whether the Amt für Nationale Sicherheit should be reorganized or phased out. Historian Stefan Wolle believes that Stasi officers may have been behind the vandalism, as part of the Two Plus Four Agreement, Germany agreed to assume maintenance and repair responsibility for all war memorials in the country, including the Soviet memorial in Treptower Park. However, Germany must consult the Russian Federation before undertaking any changes to the memorial, since 1995, an annual vigil has taken place at the memorial on May 9, organized by the Bund der Antifaschisten Treptow e. V. The motto of the event is the Day of Freedom, corresponding to Victory Day, a Russian holiday and the final surrender of German soldiers at the end of World War II. The focus of the ensemble is a monument by Soviet sculptor Yevgeny Vuchetich and this was a great achievement of the Soviet people to the history of mankind. The area is the resting place for some 5000 soldiers of the Red Army. At the opposite end of the area from the statue is a portal consisting of a pair of stylized Soviet flags built of red granite. These are flanked by two statues of kneeling soldiers, beyond the flag monuments is a further sculpture, along the axis formed by the soldier monument, the main area, and the flags, is another figure, of the Motherland weeping at the loss of her sons. In recent years, the ensemble has undergone a thorough renovation, in 2003 the main statue was removed and sent to a workshop on the island of Rügen for refurbishment. It was replaced on May 4,2004
Soviet War Memorial (Treptower Park)
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Visitors at the 65th
Victory day celebration laying flowers
Soviet War Memorial (Treptower Park)
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Panorama of the Soviet War Memorial at Treptow.
Soviet War Memorial (Treptower Park)
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President
Vladimir Putin laying a wreath at the monument in 2000.
.JPG)
.svg)
