1.
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.
Turkmen language
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Turkmen has vowel harmony, is agglutinative, and has no grammatical gender. Written Turkmen today is based on the Teke dialect, the other dialects are Nohurly, Ýomud, Änewli, Hasarly, Nerezim, Gökleň, Salyr, Saryk, Ärsary and Çowdur. The Teke dialect is referred to as Chagatai, but like all Turkmen dialects it reflects only a limited influence from classical Chagatai. Officially, Turkmen is rendered in the “Täze Elipbiý”, or “New Alphabet”, however, the old Soviet Cyrillic alphabet is still in wide use. Before 1929, Turkmen was written in an Arabic alphabet, in 1929–1938 a Latin alphabet replaced it, and then the Cyrillic alphabet was used from 1938 to 1991. In 1991, the current Latin alphabet was introduced, although the transition to it has been rather slow and it used to use some unusual letters, such as the pound, dollar, yen, and cent signs, but these were replaced by more conventional letter symbols. The following phonemes are present in the Turkmen language, Turkmen contains both short and long vowels, doubling the duration of sound for a short vowel is generally how its long vowel counterpart is pronounced. Turkmen employs vowel harmony, a principle that is common in fellow Turkic languages, vowels and their sounds are as follows, For purposes of vowel harmony the central vowel is considered back. Turkmen consonant phonemes, Note that с and з are actually used for and, not, like other Turkic languages, Turkmen is characterized by vowel harmony. In general, words of native origin consist either entirely of front vowels or entirely of back vowels, prefixes and suffixes reflect this harmony, taking different forms depending on the word to which they are attached. The infinitive form of a verb determines whether it will follow a front vowel harmony or back vowel harmony, words of foreign origin, mainly Russian, Persian, or Arabic, do not follow vowel harmony. Verbs are conjugated for singular and plural number and first, second, There are 11 verb tenses, present comprehensive, present perfect, future certain, future indefinite, conditional, past definite, obligatory, imperative, and intentional. There are two types of verbs in Turkmen, distinguished by their forms, those ending in the suffix -mak. -Mak verbs follow back vowel harmony, whereas -mek verbs follow front vowel harmony, evidentiality is determined by four markers, roughly, -dY -Yp-dYr -dYr-mY-näm -mYş Some independent particles may be said to convey evidentiality, one such word is the particle eken. Aman become sick-EV-COP Aman is sick, compare 1 with 2. a and 2. b,2. a. Maral Ashgabat-ABL come-EV-COP Maral came from Ashgabat, Ben you-GEN cookie-pl-2sPOSS-ACC eat-3spast Ben ate your cookies. The speaker saw Ben eat the cookies, Ben told the speaker that he ate the cookies. Ben you-GEN cookie-pl-2sPOSS-ACC eat-EV-COP Ben ate your cookies, the speaker heard from someone else that Ben ate the cookies
3.
Republics of the Soviet Union
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The Republics of the Soviet Union or the Union Republics of the Soviet Union were ethnically based proto-states that were subordinated directly to the Government of the Soviet Union. Article 81 of the Constitution stated that the rights of Union Republics shall be safeguarded by the USSR. In the final decades of its existence, the Soviet Union officially consisted of fifteen Soviet Socialist Republics, all of them, with the exception of the Russian Federation, had their own local party chapters of the All-Union Communist Party. In 1944, amendments to the All-Union Constitution allowed for branches of the Red Army for each Soviet Republic. They also allowed for Republic-level commissariats for foreign affairs and defense and this allowed for two Soviet Republics, Ukraine and Byelorussia, to join the United Nations General Assembly as founding members in 1945. All of the former Republics of the Union are now independent countries, however, most of the international community did not consider the Baltic countries to have legitimately been part of the USSR. Their position is supported by the European Union, the European Court of Human Rights, the United Nations Human Rights Council, in contrast, the Russian government and state officials maintain that the Soviet annexation of the Baltic states was legitimate. Constitutionally, the Soviet Union was a federation, in accordance with provisions present in the Constitution, each republic retained the right to secede from the USSR. Under the constitution adopted in 1936 and modified along the way until October 1977, along with the state administrative hierarchy, there existed a parallel structure of party organizations, which allowed the Politburo to exercise large amounts of control over the republics. State administrative organs took direction from the party organs, and appointments of all party. Each republic had its own set of state symbols, a flag, a coat of arms, and, with the exception of Russia until 1990. Every republic of the Soviet Union also was awarded with the Order of Lenin, number of the union republics of the USSR varied from 4 to 16. In majority of years and at the decades of its existence. The Soviet Union considered the initial annexation legal, but officially recognized their independence on September 6,1991, the Socialist Soviet Republic of Byelorussia, in winter of 1919 The Lithuanian–Byelorussian Soviet Socialist Republic was proclaimed in 1919 but fell very soon. The Persian Socialist Soviet Republic, in what is now Iran, the Turkestan Soviet Federative Republic was proclaimed in 1918 but did not survive to the founding of the USSR, becoming the short-lived Turkestan Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic of the RSFSR. When the Tuvan Peoples Republic joined the Soviet Union in 1944, it did not become a union republic, the leader of the Peoples Republic of Bulgaria, Todor Zhivkov, suggested in the early 1960s that the country should become a union republic, but the offer was rejected. During the Soviet–Afghan War, the Soviet Union proposed to annex the Northern Afghanistan as its 16th union republic in what was to become the Afghan Soviet Socialist Republic, though administratively part of their respective Union Republics, ASSRs were also established based on ethnic/cultural lines. Under Mikhail Gorbachev, openness and restructuring were intended to liberalise, however, they had a number of effects which caused the power of the republics to increase
4.
Flag of the Turkmen Soviet Socialist Republic
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The flag of the Turkmen Soviet Socialist Republic was adopted by the Turkmen SSR on August 1,1953. Although similar to the Flag of the Soviet Union, the design is identical to the flag of the Kirghiz SSR with a ratio of 1,2. In the 1930s, the Turkmen flag was red with a gold hammer and sickle in the top-left corner. From 1937, the flag was red with the Cyrillic characters ТССР in gold in the top-left corner, from the 1940s, the flag was the same, but with the characters in Latin characters. On September 26,1973, the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the Turkmen SSR modified the regulation of the flag of Turkmen SSR, the position of the star and hammer and sickle was moved closer to the flag pole. Between independence in 1991 and adoption of the new flag in February 1992, Flag of the Soviet Union Coat of arms of the Turkmen SSR Flag of Turkmenistan
5.
Workers of the world, unite!
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Five years before the Communist Manifesto, the phrase appeared in the 1843 book The Workers Union by Flora Tristan. It reflected Marxs and Engels view of proletarian internationalism, first that workers should unite in unions to better push for their demands such as workplace pay and conditions. Secondly, that workers should see beyond their various craft unions, and thirdly, that workers of different countries have more in common with each other than workers and employers of the same country. The phrase was used by the Industrial Workers of the World in propaganda and songs, the IWW used it when opposing World War I in both the USA and Australia. The slogan was the Soviet Unions state motto, appeared in the State Emblem of the Soviet Union, on 1919 Russian SFSR banknotes, on Soviet coins from 1921 to 1934, the nascent USSR under Vladimir Lenin was oriented toward international communism. Contemporarily, some socialist and communist parties continue using it, moreover, it is a common usage in popular culture, often chanted during labor strikes and protests. In the first Swedish translation of the Communist Manifesto, published in 1848, later translations have, however, included the original slogan. Amongst Maoist-oriented groups a variation invented by Vladimir Lenin, Workers and Oppressed Peoples and Nations of the World and this slogan was the rallying cry of the 2nd Comintern congress in 1920, and denoted the anti-imperialist and anti-colonialist agenda of the Comintern. The phrase has been translated into many languages, all of the Soviet Socialist Republics in the Soviet Union had it as their motto translated into the local languages. An extensive list of translations is available at Wiktionary. Manifesto of the Communist Party by Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels
6.
Anthem of the Turkmen Soviet Socialist Republic
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The State Anthem of the Turkmen SSR was the national anthem of Turkmenistan when it was a republic of the Soviet Union. The anthem as used from 1946 to 1997, the music was composed by Veli Mukhatov, who also composed the current anthem of Turkmenistan, and the lyrics were written by Aman Kekilov and a group of authors. On April 12,1978, the lyrics were changed to remove mentions of Joseph Stalin. After independence was declared, this melody was still used until 1997. Except, there were no lyrics in the new version, MIDI file Vocal recording in MP3 format Lyrics - nationalanthems. info
7.
Soviet Union
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The Soviet Union, officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics was a socialist state in Eurasia that existed from 1922 to 1991. It was nominally a union of national republics, but its government. The Soviet Union had its roots in the October Revolution of 1917 and this established the Russian Socialist Federative Soviet Republic and started the Russian Civil War between the revolutionary Reds and the counter-revolutionary Whites. In 1922, the communists were victorious, forming the Soviet Union with the unification of the Russian, Transcaucasian, Ukrainian, following Lenins death in 1924, a collective leadership and a brief power struggle, Joseph Stalin came to power in the mid-1920s. Stalin suppressed all opposition to his rule, committed the state ideology to Marxism–Leninism. As a result, the country underwent a period of rapid industrialization and collectivization which laid the foundation for its victory in World War II and postwar dominance of Eastern Europe. Shortly before World War II, Stalin signed the Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact agreeing to non-aggression with Nazi Germany, in June 1941, the Germans invaded the Soviet Union, opening the largest and bloodiest theater of war in history. Soviet war casualties accounted for the highest proportion of the conflict in the effort of acquiring the upper hand over Axis forces at battles such as Stalingrad. Soviet forces eventually captured Berlin in 1945, the territory overtaken by the Red Army became satellite states of the Eastern Bloc. The Cold War emerged by 1947 as the Soviet bloc confronted the Western states that united in the North Atlantic Treaty Organization in 1949. Following Stalins death in 1953, a period of political and economic liberalization, known as de-Stalinization and Khrushchevs Thaw, the country developed rapidly, as millions of peasants were moved into industrialized cities. The USSR took a lead in the Space Race with Sputnik 1, the first ever satellite, and Vostok 1. In the 1970s, there was a brief détente of relations with the United States, the war drained economic resources and was matched by an escalation of American military aid to Mujahideen fighters. In the mid-1980s, the last Soviet leader, Mikhail Gorbachev, sought to reform and liberalize the economy through his policies of glasnost. The goal was to preserve the Communist Party while reversing the economic stagnation, the Cold War ended during his tenure, and in 1989 Soviet satellite countries in Eastern Europe overthrew their respective communist regimes. This led to the rise of strong nationalist and separatist movements inside the USSR as well, in August 1991, a coup détat was attempted by Communist Party hardliners. It failed, with Russian President Boris Yeltsin playing a role in facing down the coup. On 25 December 1991, Gorbachev resigned and the twelve constituent republics emerged from the dissolution of the Soviet Union as independent post-Soviet states
8.
Ashgabat
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Ashgabat — known as Poltoratsk between 1919 and 1927, is the capital and the largest city of Turkmenistan in Central Asia, situated between the Karakum Desert and the Kopet Dag mountain range. The Karakum Canal runs through the city, carrying waters from the Amu Darya from east to west, Ashgabat is called Aşgabat in Turkmen, Ашхабад in Russian, and Ešq-ābād in Persian. Before 1991, the city was usually spelled Ashkhabad in English and it has also been variously spelled Ashkhabat and Ashgabad. From 1919 until 1927 the city was renamed Poltoratsk after a local revolutionary, the name means city of love or city of devotion. Some Turkmen scholars insist that the name back to the Parthian era, 3rd century BC, deriving from the name of the founder of the Parthian Empire, Arsaces I of Parthia. Ashgabat is a young city, having been founded in 1881 as a fortification. Konjikala was rebuilt because of its advantageous location on the Silk Road, after that it survived as a small village until Russians took over in the 19th century. A part of Persia until the Battle of Geok Tepe, Askhabad was ceded to the Russian Empire under the terms of the Akhal Treaty, russia developed the area as it was close to the border of British-influenced Persia. It was regarded as a pleasant town with European style buildings, shops, in 1908, the first Baháí House of Worship was built in Askhabat. It was badly damaged in the 1948 earthquake and finally demolished in 1963, the community of the Baháí Faith in Turkmenistan was largely based in Ashgabat. Soviet rule was established in Ashgabat in December 1917, after receiving some support from General Malleson, the British withdrew in April 1919 and the Tashkent Soviet resumed control of the city. In 1919, the city was renamed Poltoratsk, after Pavel Poltoratsky, when the Turkmen SSR was established in 1924, Poltoratsk became its capital. The original name was restored in 1927, from this period onward, the city experienced rapid growth and industrialisation, although severely disrupted by a major earthquake on October 6,1948. An estimated 7.3 on the Richter scale, the earthquake killed 110-176,000, in July 2003, all the names of streets in Ashgabat were replaced by serial numbers except nine major highways, some named after Saparmurat Niyazov, his father and mother. The Central Palace area is designated 2000 to symbolize the beginning of the 21st century, the rest of the streets have larger or smaller four-digit numerical names. In 2013, the city was included in the Guinness Book of Records as the worlds highest concentration of white marble buildings, Russians form 7. 7% of the population, followed by Armenians, Turks, Uzbeks, and Azeris. When Ashgabat was under Russian rule, the number of Baháís in the city rose to over 1,000, the community elected one of the first Baháí local administrative institutions. The building was designed under the guidance of Abdul-Bahá by Ustad Ali-Akbar Banna Yazdi who also wrote a history of the Bahais in Ashgabat, under the Soviet policy towards religion, the Baháís, strictly adhering to their principle of obedience to legal government, abandoned these properties in 1928
9.
Unitary state
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The majority of states in the world have a unitary system of government. Of the 193 UN member states,165 of them are governed as unitary states, unitary states are contrasted with federal states. In a unitary state, sub-national units are created and abolished, the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland is an example of a unitary state. Many unitary states have no areas possessing a degree of autonomy, in such countries, sub-national regions cannot decide their own laws. Examples are the Republic of Ireland and the Kingdom of Norway, in federal states, the sub-national governments share powers with the central government as equal actors through a written constitution, to which the consent of both is required to make amendments. This means that the units have a right of existence. The United States of America is an example of a federal state, under the U. S. Constitution, powers are shared between the federal government and the states
10.
One-party state
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All other parties are either outlawed or allowed to take only a limited and controlled participation in elections. One-party states explain themselves through various methods, most often, proponents of a one-party state argue that the existence of separate parties runs counter to national unity. Others argue that the one party is the vanguard of the people, the Soviet government argued that multiple parties represented the class struggle, which was absent in Soviet society, and so the Soviet Union only had one party, the Communist Party. Some one-party states only outlaw opposition parties, while allowing allied parties to exist as part of a permanent coalition such as a popular front. However, these parties are largely or completely subservient to the ruling party, examples of this are the Peoples Republic of China under the United Front, or the National Front in former East Germany. Others may allow non-party members to run for seats, as was the case with Taiwans Tangwai movement in the 1970s and 1980s. Within their own countries, dominant parties ruling over one-party states are referred to simply as the Party. One-party systems often arise from decolonization because one party has had a dominant role in liberation or in independence struggles. One-party states are often, but not always, considered to be authoritarian or totalitarian, however, not all authoritarian or totalitarian states operate based on one-party rule. Some, especially absolute monarchies and certain military dictatorships, have all political parties illegal. The term communist state is used in the West to apply to states in which the ruling party subscribes to a form of Marxism–Leninism. While the role of the Communist Party is enshrined in the constitution, no party is permitted to campaign or run candidates for election, the party was conceived by the original Black American settlers and their descendants who referred to themselves as Americo-Liberians. Initially, its ideology was influenced by that of the Whig Party in the United States. Over time it developed into a powerful Masonic Order that ruled every aspect of Liberian society for well over a century until it was overthrown in 1980, while the True Whig Party still exists today, its influence has substantially declined
11.
Socialist state
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A socialist state or socialist republic refers to any state that is constitutionally dedicated to the establishment of socialism. Aside from the Communist states, a number of states have described their orientation as socialist in their constitutions. In such cases, the system and machinery of government is not specifically structured to pursue the development of socialism. The concept of a socialist state is related to state socialism. Specifically, the state would become an entity for production as opposed to a mechanism for political control. According to Friedrich Engels, Saint-Simon foreshadowed the classical Marxist notion of the development of the state in a socialist society, karl Marx understood the state to be an instrument of the class rule, dominated by the interests of the ruling class in any mode of production. This transitional stage would involve working-class interests dominating government policy, in the manner that capitalist-class interests dominate government policy under capitalism. Karl Marx described the Paris Commune as the prototype for a government of the future. Friedrich Engels noted that all officials, high or low, were only the wages received by other workers. In this way an effective barrier to place-hunting and careerism was set up, such a state would be a temporary affair, Engels argued. A new generation, he suggested, brought up in new and free social conditions, the Leninist conception of a socialist state is tied to Vladimir Lenins theory of the revolutionary party and organizational principles of democratic centralism. These ideas were adopted by Vladimir Lenin in 1917 just prior to the October Revolution in Russia and published in The State and Revolution, a central text for many Marxists. Vladimir Lenin argued that as socialism is replaced by communism, the state would wither away as strong centralized control progressively reduces as local communities gain more empowerment, as he put succinctly, So long as the state exists there is no freedom. When there is freedom, there will be no state, states run by Communist parties that adhere to Marxism–Leninism, or some variation thereof, refer to themselves as socialist states. The Soviet Union was the first to proclaim itself a socialist state in its 1936 Constitution, another well-known example is the Peoples Republic of China, which proclaims itself to be a socialist state in its 1982 Constitution of the Peoples Republic of China. In the West, such states are known as communist states. This often includes at least the commanding heights of the economy to be nationalized, usually operated according to a plan of production, at least in the major production and social spheres. These Communist states often dont claim to have achieved socialism in their countries, rather, the Democratic Peoples Republic of Korea used to be a Marxist–Leninist state
12.
Saparmurat Niyazov
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Saparmurat Atayevich Niyazov was a Turkmen politician who served as the leader of Turkmenistan from 1985 until his death in 2006. He was First Secretary of the Turkmen Communist Party from 1985 until 1991, Turkmen media referred to him using the title His Excellency Saparmurat Türkmenbaşy, President of Turkmenistan and Chairman of the Cabinet of Ministers. His self-given title Türkmenbaşy, meaning Head of the Turkmen, referred to his position as the founder, Niyazov was born on 19 February 1940 in Gypjak, just outside Ashgabat in the Turkmen SSR. He was a member of the influential Tekke tribe, the other members of his family were killed in the 1948 Ashgabat earthquake that caused extreme damage and a high number of casualties the city. His mother Gurbansoltan Eje was part of the Cult of personality later and he grew up in a Soviet orphanage before the state put him in the custody of a distant relative. After finishing school in 1959, he worked as an instructor in the Turkmen trade-union exploratory committee and he then studied at the Leningrad Polytechnic Institute, where in 1967 he received a diploma as an electrical engineer. After graduating, he went to study in Russia, but was expelled a few years later for academic failure, in 1962 Niyazov started his political career, becoming a member of the Communist Party. He quickly rose through the ranks, becoming First Secretary of the Communist Party of the Turkmen SSR in 1985 and he gained this post after Soviet General Secretary Mikhail Gorbachev had removed his predecessor, Muhammetnazar Gapurov, following a cotton-related scandal. Under Niyazov, the Turkmen Communist Party had a reputation as one of the most hardline, on January 13,1990, Niyazov became Chairman of the Supreme Soviet of the Turkmen SSR, the supreme legislative body in the republic. The post was equivalent to that of president, Niyazov supported the Soviet coup attempt of 1991. However, after the coup collapsed, he set about separating Turkmenistan from the dying Soviet Union, the Turkmen Supreme Soviet declared Turkmenistan independent and appointed Niyazov as the countrys first president on October 27,1991. On June 21,1992 the Turkmenistani presidential election of 1992 saw Niyazov - the sole candidate - chosen as the countrys first popularly elected president, a year later he declared himself Türkmenbaşy - Leader of all Turkmen. In 1994 a plebiscite extended Niyazovs term to 2002 so he could oversee a 10-year development plan, the official results showed that 99. 9% of voters approved this proposal. On December 28,1999, Parliament declared Niyazov President for Life, Niyazov and his Russian-Jewish wife, Muza, had a son and a daughter. Niyazov became president at the transition of Turkmenistan from a Soviet republic to an independent state, there was outside concern about press freedom and to a lesser extent religious rights of minority religious groups. He also took part in creating new holidays with a specific Turkmen nature and introduced a new Latin-based Turkmen alphabet to replace Russian Cyrillic. The Latin Turkmen alphabet consists of, Aa, Bb, Çç, Dd, Ee, Ää, Ff, Gg, Hh, Ii, Jj, Žž, Kk, Ll, Mm, Nn, Ňň, Oo, Öö, Pp, Rr, Ss, Şş, Tt, Uu, Üü, Ww, Yy, Ýý, Zz. Niyazov became a substitute for the left by the downfall of the communist system, with his image replacing those of Marx
13.
People's Council of Turkmenistan
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The Halk Maslahaty was the highest representative body in Turkmenistan. It was abolished in the new constitution of 2008, before 1991, it was known as the Supreme Soviet of the Turkmen Soviet Socialist Republic. The council had 2,507 members, some of whom were elected, all candidates at the elections of 7 April 2003 belonged to the Democratic Party of Turkmenistan. Like the Assembly of Turkmenistan, it was led by the President, turkmenistans administration was based on Halk Maslahatys on different levels. Each province of Turkmenistan has its own, 80-member welaýat halk maslahaty and their influence is fairly limited even on paper and probably even more so in practice, taking into account that Turkmenistan is a one-party state ruled almost exclusively by its president. On lower administrative levels, district and city halk maslahatys exist, the Halk Maslahaty system was abolished when President Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedow introduced a new constitution in 2008, its powers being returned to the Assembly and the President
14.
Turkestan Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic
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The Turkestan Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic was an autonomous republic of the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic located in Soviet Central Asia. During the Russian Empire, the Turkestan ASSRs territory was governed as Turkestan Krai, the Emirate of Bukhara, from 1905, Pan-Turkist ideologues like Ismail Gasprinski aimed to suppress differences among the peoples who spoke Turkic languages, uniting them into one government. This idea was supported by Vladimir Lenin, and after the Russian Revolution of 1917, but in February 1918, the Islamic Council and the Council of Intelligentsia met in Kokand city and declared a rival Turkestan Autonomous Republic, battling Bolshevik forces until the 1920s. The latter group won, as national delimitation in Central Asia began in 1924, upon dissolution, the Turkestan ASSR was split into Turkmen SSR, Uzbek SSR with the Tajik ASSR, Kara-Kirghiz Autonomous Oblast, and Karakalpak Autonomous Oblast. Chairmen of the Council of Peoples Commissars Uzbekistan at worldstatesmen. org, accessed 23 July 2009
15.
Soviet ruble
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The Soviet ruble was the currency of the Soviet Union. One ruble was divided into 100 kopeks, many of the ruble designs were created by Ivan Dubasov. In 1991, after the breakup of the Soviet Union, the Soviet ruble continued to be used in the Post-Soviet states, forming a ruble zone, the word ruble is derived from the Slavic verb рубить, rubit, i. e. to chop. Historically, ruble was a piece of a certain weight chopped off a silver ingot, the word kopek, kopeck, copeck, or kopeyka is a diminutive form of the Russian kopyo — a spear. The Soviet currency had its own name in all Soviet languages, sometimes different from its Russian designation. All banknotes had the name and their nominal printed in the languages of every Soviet Republic. This naming is preserved in modern Russia, for example, Tatar for ruble and kopek are sum, the current names of several currencies of Central Asia are simply the local names of the ruble. Finnish last appeared on 1947 banknotes since the Karelo-Finnish SSR was dissolved in 1956, moldovan has switched to Latin and is once again referred to as Romanian. The first ruble issued for the Socialist government was an issue still based on the previous issue of the ruble prior to the Russian Revolution of 1917. They are all in form and started their issue in 1919. At this time other issues were made by the white Russian government and other governing bodies. Denominations are as follows,1,2,3,5,10,15,25,50,60,100,250,500,1,000,5,000,10,000,25,000,50,000,100,000. Short term treasury certificate were also issued to supplement banknote issue in 1 million,5 million,10 million rubles. These issue was printed in various fashions, as inflation crept up the security features were few and some were printed on one side, as was the case for the German inflationary notes. In 1918, state notes were introduced by the R. S. F. S. R. for 1,3,5,10,25,50,100,250,500,1,000,5,000 and 10,000 rubles. These were followed in 1919 by currency notes for 1,2,3,15,20,60,100,250,500,1000,5000 and 10,000 rubles. In 1921, currency note denominations of 5,50,25,000,50,000,100,000,1,000,000,5,000,000 and 10,000,000 rubles were added. In 1922, the first of several redenominations took place, at a rate of 1 new ruble for 10,000 old rubles, the chervonets was also introduced in 1922
16.
Telephone numbers in the Soviet Union
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The telephone numbering plan of the USSR was a set of telephone area codes, numbers and dialing rules, which operated in the Soviet Union until the 1990s. After the collapse of the USSR, many newly independent republics implemented their own numbering plans, however, many of the principles of the Soviet numbering plan still remain. The former Soviet international code +7 is still retained by Russia, the Soviet Union used a four-level open numbering plan. The long distance prefix was 8, one could call a local number without the code. Local numbers usually consisted of 5-7 digits, with numbers only occurring in Moscow, Leningrad. Within the same numbering area the pattern was,8 2X YYYYYY, for example,809624 XXXXX for a call to the city of Klin, Klinsky District, Moscow Oblast. For international calls, one should dial 810 <country code> <code> <phone number>, for example,8101212 XXXXXXX for a call to New York City. Emergency numbers in the USSR began with 0 and had two digits, when one called the emergency numbers, no tariff was charged. 01 - Fire brigade 02 - Police 03 - Ambulance 04 - Gas leaks 07 was used to order long-distance calls through the operator, area codes with 0 denotes the republics and Oblasts of the European part of the USSR. After the collapse of the Soviet Union, these codes in Russia, Belarus and Ukraine were preserved, area codes in the Ukraine and Belarus later dropped initial 0. In Russia, in December 2005 the leading zero in the Oblastal area codes was replaced by a 4. agava. ru/sngsity/sng01. htm http, //phonecodes. by. ru/01. html http, //www. scross. ru/guide/phone-local/
17.
Bukharan People's Soviet Republic
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The Bukharan Peoples Soviet Republic was a short-lived Soviet state that governed the former Emirate of Bukhara during the years immediately following the Russian Revolution. In 1924, its name was changed to the Bukharan Socialist Soviet Republic, after the redrawing of regional borders, its territory was assigned mostly to the Uzbek SSR and some to the Turkmen SSR. In 1868, the Russian Empire forced the Emirate of Bukhara to accept protectorate status, over the next 40 years, the Russians slowly eroded at Bukhara’s territory, although never actually annexing the city of Bukhara itself. These various ideologies coalesced in the Young Bukharans, led by Faizullah Khojaev, the Young Bukharans faced extreme obstacles as the emirate was dominated by conservative Sunni Islamic clergy. The ensuing conflict pitted the secular Young Bukharans and their Bolshevik supporters against the conservative pro-emir rebels, in March 1918, the Young Bukharan activists informed the Bolsheviks that the Bukharan people were ready for the revolution and awaiting liberation from the emir. The Red Army marched to the gates of Bukhara and demanded that the surrender the city to the Young Bukharans. A Russian source reports that the responded by killing the Bolshevik delegation. The majority of Bukharans did not support the invasion and the Bolshevik force retreated to Soviet-controlled Samarkand outside the Emirate of Bukhara, however, the emir had won only a temporary respite. By August 1920 the Turkestan Bolsheviks advocated the liquidation of the Bukhara Emirate as a centre for counter-revolutionary forces, on 3 August 1920 the Bolsheviks and the Young Bukharans agreed to act together on the understanding that the Young Bukharans would join the Communist Party. On 16 August 1920 the 4th Congress of Bukharan Communist Party held in Bolshevik-controlled Chardjui decided to overthrow the emir, on 25 August 1920 the Politburo of the Russian Communist Party of Bolesheviks confirmed orders for the Revolutionary Military Council of Turkestan concerning the Bukhara question. On 28 August 1920, an army of well-disciplined and well equipped Red Army troops under the command of Bolshevik general Mikhail Frunze attacked the city of Bukhara, on 31 August 1920, the Emir Alim Khan fled to Dushanbe in Eastern Bukhara. On 2 September 1920, after four days of fighting, the citadel was destroyed. On 14 September 1920, the All-Bukharan Revolutionary Committee was set up, the government – the Council of Peoples Nazirs – was presided over by Faizullah Khojaev. The Bukharan Peoples Soviet Republic was proclaimed on 8 October 1920 under Faizullah Khojaev, in Soviet terminology, the republic was a revolutionary-democratic dictatorship of the proletariat and the peasantry, a transition stage to a Soviet Socialist Republic. The overthrow of the emir was the impetus for the Basmachi Revolt, in 1922, most of the territory of the republic was controlled by Basmachi, and it took the Red Army until 1926 to fully suppress the revolt. Just two weeks after the proclamation of the Peoples Republic, Communist Party membership in Bukhara soared to 14,000 as many inhabitants were eager to prove their loyalty to the new regime. As the Soviet Union stabilized, it could afford to purge itself of so-called opportunists, a series of expulsions stripped membership down to 1000 by 1922. Conversely, the flags of the Soviet Republics among which the Bukharan territory was divided in 1925 featured the Hammer and Sickle alone, from 19 September 1924 to 17 February 1925, the republic was known as the Bukharan Socialist Soviet Republic
18.
Turkmenistan
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Turkmenistan has been at the crossroads of civilizations for centuries. In medieval times, Merv was one of the cities of the Islamic world and an important stop on the Silk Road. Annexed by the Russian Empire in 1881, Turkmenistan later figured prominently in the movement in Central Asia. In 1924, Turkmenistan became a constituent republic of the Soviet Union, Turkmen Soviet Socialist Republic, Turkmenistan possesses the worlds fourth largest reserves of natural gas resources. Most of the country is covered by the Karakum Desert, since 1993, citizens have received government-provided electricity, water and natural gas free of charge. Turkmenistan was ruled by President for Life Saparmurat Niyazov until his death in 2006, Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedow was elected president in 2007. According to Human Rights Watch, Turkmenistan remains one of the world’s most repressive countries, after suspending the death penalty, the use of capital punishment was formally abolished in the 2008 constitution. Historically inhabited by the Indo-Iranians, the history of Turkmenistan begins with its annexation by the Achaemenid Empire of Ancient Iran. In the 8th century AD, Turkic-speaking Oghuz tribes moved from Mongolia into present-day Central Asia, part of a powerful confederation of tribes, these Oghuz formed the ethnic basis of the modern Turkmen population. In the 10th century, the name Turkmen was first applied to Oghuz groups that accepted Islam, There they were under the dominion of the Seljuk Empire, which was composed of Oghuz groups living in present-day Iran and Turkmenistan. Turkmen soldiers in the service of the played a important role in the spreading of Turkic culture when they migrated westward into present-day Azerbaijan. In the 12th century, Turkmen and other tribes overthrew the Seljuk Empire, in the next century, the Mongols took over the more northern lands where the Turkmens had settled, scattering the Turkmens southward and contributing to the formation of new tribal groups. The sixteenth and eighteenth centuries saw a series of splits and confederations among the nomadic Turkmen tribes, by the 16th century, most of those tribes were under the nominal control of two sedentary Uzbek khanates, Khiva and Bukhoro. Turkmen soldiers were an important element of the Uzbek militaries of this period, in the 19th century, raids and rebellions by the Yomud Turkmen group resulted in that groups dispersal by the Uzbek rulers. According to Paul R. Spickard, Prior to the Russian conquest, Russian forces began occupying Turkmen territory late in the 19th century. From their Caspian Sea base at Krasnovodsk, the Russians eventually overcame the Uzbek khanates, in 1916 the Russian Empires participation in World War I resonated in Turkmenistan, as an anticonscription revolt swept most of Russian Central Asia. In 1924 the Turkmen Soviet Socialist Republic was formed from the tsarist province of Transcaspia, by the late 1930s, Soviet reorganization of agriculture had destroyed what remained of the nomadic lifestyle in Turkmenistan, and Moscow controlled political life. The Ashgabat earthquake of 1948 killed over 110,000 people, during the next half-century, Turkmenistan played its designated economic role within the Soviet Union and remained outside the course of major world events
19.
History of Turkmenistan
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Some of the known early Iranian tribes included the Massagatae, Scythians/Sakas, and early Soghdians. The regions written history begins with the regions conquest by the Achaemenid Empire of ancient Iran, later conquerors included Alexander the Great, the Parni, Ephthalites, Huns, Göktürks, Sarmatians, and Sassanid Iranians. During this early phase of history, the majority of Turkmenistans inhabitants were adherents of Zoroastrianism or Buddhism. However, these incursions and epochs, though pivotal, did not shape the history as the invasions of two later invading groups, Muslim Arabs and the Oghuz Turks. The vast majority of inhabitants were converted to Hanifism, while the Oghuz brought the beginnings of the Turkic Turkmen language that came to dominate the area. Genghis Khan and Mongol invasions devastated the region during the late Middle Ages, modern Turkmenistan was radically transformed by the invasion of the Russian Empire, which conquered the region in the late 19th century. Later, the Russian Revolution of 1917 would ultimately transform Turkmenistan from an Islamic tribal society to a totalitarian Leninist one during the Soviet era, Niyazov ruled until his death on December 21,2006. Scant remains point to human settlements east of the Caspian Sea, possibly including Neanderthals. By 2000 BCE, Indo-European peoples had settled throughout the region, most of the present-day Turkmenistan was occupied by BMAC-related societies and the Dahae – a tribal confederation located immediately east of the Caspian. The Massagetae and Scythians were also present, immediately north of BMAC, Alexander the Great conquered the territory in the 4th century BC on his way to South Asia. In 330 BC, Alexander marched northward into Central Asia and founded the city of Alexandria near the Murgab River, located on an important trade route, Alexandria later became the city of Merv. The ruins of Alexanders ancient city are still to be found and have extensively researched. After Alexanders death his empire fell apart. It was ruled by Seleucids before the satrap of Parthia declared independence, the Parthians – fierce, nomadic warriors from the north of Iran – then established the kingdom of Parthia, which covered present-day Turkmenistan and Iran. Excavations at Nisa have revealed substantial buildings, mausoleums and shrines, many inscribed documents, many Hellenistic art works have been uncovered, as well as a large number of ivory rhytons, the outer rims decorated with Iranian subjects or classical mythological scenes. The Parthian Kingdom succumbed in 224 AD to the Sasanids – rulers of Iran, by the early 4th century AD, a Kushan noble from the Balkan province called Malkar of Khi, had become leader of the Huns settled there. In alliance with Dulo the Alan king on the Volga Delta, the Dulo clans first proto-Turkic Empire spread its influence as far east as the sub-continent under the Kitolo and as far west as Central Europe under Attilas Dulo. As a result of this backfire, the Sabirs settled there were forced to attack the Alan strongholds of the Dulo Ten Tribe Confederation in the Kuban steppe
20.
Early history of Turkmenistan
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Some of the known early Iranian tribes included the Massagatae, Scythians/Sakas, and early Soghdians. The regions written history begins with the regions conquest by the Achaemenid Empire of ancient Iran, later conquerors included Alexander the Great, the Parni, Ephthalites, Huns, Göktürks, Sarmatians, and Sassanid Iranians. During this early phase of history, the majority of Turkmenistans inhabitants were adherents of Zoroastrianism or Buddhism. However, these incursions and epochs, though pivotal, did not shape the history as the invasions of two later invading groups, Muslim Arabs and the Oghuz Turks. The vast majority of inhabitants were converted to Hanifism, while the Oghuz brought the beginnings of the Turkic Turkmen language that came to dominate the area. Genghis Khan and Mongol invasions devastated the region during the late Middle Ages, modern Turkmenistan was radically transformed by the invasion of the Russian Empire, which conquered the region in the late 19th century. Later, the Russian Revolution of 1917 would ultimately transform Turkmenistan from an Islamic tribal society to a totalitarian Leninist one during the Soviet era, Niyazov ruled until his death on December 21,2006. Scant remains point to human settlements east of the Caspian Sea, possibly including Neanderthals. By 2000 BCE, Indo-European peoples had settled throughout the region, most of the present-day Turkmenistan was occupied by BMAC-related societies and the Dahae – a tribal confederation located immediately east of the Caspian. The Massagetae and Scythians were also present, immediately north of BMAC, Alexander the Great conquered the territory in the 4th century BC on his way to South Asia. In 330 BC, Alexander marched northward into Central Asia and founded the city of Alexandria near the Murgab River, located on an important trade route, Alexandria later became the city of Merv. The ruins of Alexanders ancient city are still to be found and have extensively researched. After Alexanders death his empire fell apart. It was ruled by Seleucids before the satrap of Parthia declared independence, the Parthians – fierce, nomadic warriors from the north of Iran – then established the kingdom of Parthia, which covered present-day Turkmenistan and Iran. Excavations at Nisa have revealed substantial buildings, mausoleums and shrines, many inscribed documents, many Hellenistic art works have been uncovered, as well as a large number of ivory rhytons, the outer rims decorated with Iranian subjects or classical mythological scenes. The Parthian Kingdom succumbed in 224 AD to the Sasanids – rulers of Iran, by the early 4th century AD, a Kushan noble from the Balkan province called Malkar of Khi, had become leader of the Huns settled there. In alliance with Dulo the Alan king on the Volga Delta, the Dulo clans first proto-Turkic Empire spread its influence as far east as the sub-continent under the Kitolo and as far west as Central Europe under Attilas Dulo. As a result of this backfire, the Sabirs settled there were forced to attack the Alan strongholds of the Dulo Ten Tribe Confederation in the Kuban steppe
21.
Turkmens
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The Turkmens are a Turkic people located primarily in Central Asia, in the state of Turkmenistan, as well as in Iran, Afghanistan, North Caucasus, and northern Pakistan. They speak the Turkmen language, which is classified as a part of the Eastern Oghuz branch of the Turkic languages, examples of other Oghuz languages are Turkish, Azerbaijani, Qashqai, Gagauz, Khorasani, and Salar. Originally, all Turkic tribes that were not part of the Turkic dynastic mythological system were designated Turkmens, only later did this word come to refer to a specific ethnonym. The etymology of the term derives from Türk plus the Sogdian affix of similarity -myn, -men, a prominent Turkic scholar, Mahmud Kashgari, also mentions the etymology Türk manand. The language and ethnicity of the Turkmen were much influenced by their migration to the west, Kashgari calls the Karluks Turkmen as well, but the first time the etymology Turkmen was used was by Makdisi in the second half of the 10th century AD. Like Kashgari, he wrote that the Karluks and Oghuz Turks were called Turkmen, some modern scholars have proposed that the element -man/-men acts as an intensifier, and have translated the word as pure Turk or most Turk-like of the Turks. During the Ottoman period these nomads were known by the names of Türkmen and these names were generally used to describe their nomadic way of life, rather than their ethnic origins. However, these terms were used interchangeably by foreigners. At the same time, various other exonym words were used for these nomads, such as Konar-göçer, Göçebe, Göçer-yörük, Göçerler, the most common one among these was Konar-göçer – nomadic Turcoman Turks. All of these words are found in Ottoman archival documents and carry only the meaning of nomad, Oghuz tribes had moved westward from the Altay mountains in the 7th century AD, through the Siberian steppes, and settled in this region. They also penetrated as far west as the Volga basin and the Balkans and these early Turkmens are believed to have mixed with native Sogdian peoples and lived as pastoral nomads until the Russian conquest of the 19th century. Signs of advanced settlements have been found throughout Turkmenistan including the Djeitun settlement where neolithic buildings have been excavated and dated to the 7th millennium BCE, by 2000 BCE, various Indo-European peoples began to settle throughout the region, as indicated by the finds at the Bactria-Margiana Archaeological Complex. Notable early tribes included the nomadic Dahae, Massagetae and Scythians, the Parni, a Dahae tribe came to dominate the region, and established the Parthian Empire, which also later fractured as a result of invasions from the north. Ephthalites, Huns, and Göktürks came in a parade of invasions. Finally, the Sassanid Empire based in Persia ruled the area prior to the coming of the Muslim Arabs during the Umayyad Caliphate by 716 CE, the majority of the inhabitants were converted to Islam as the region grew in prominence. Next came the Oghuz Turks, who imparted their language upon the local population, a tribe of the Oghuz, the Seljuks, established a Turko-Iranian culture that culminated in the Khwarezmid Empire by the 12th century. Mongol hordes led by Genghis Khan conquered the area between 1219 and 1221 and devastated many of the cities led to a rapid decline of the remaining Iranian urban population. The Turkmen largely survived the Mongol period due to their lifestyle and became traders along the Caspian
22.
Soviet Central Asia
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Soviet Central Asia refers to the section of Central Asia formerly controlled by the Soviet Union, as well as the time period of Soviet administration. Central Asian SSRs declared independence in 1991, in terms of area, it is nearly synonymous with Russian Turkestan, the name for the region during the Russian Empire. Soviet Central Asia went through many territorial divisions before the current borders were created in the 1920s and 1930s, the beginning of the 18th century marked the zenith of the Kazakh Khanate. During this period the Little jüz participated in the 1723–1730 war against the Dzungars, following the Bolshevik Revolution of 1917, the tsars effectively ruled over most of the territory belonging to what is now the Republic of Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan. Russia annexed Lake Issyk Kul in north east Kyrgyzstan of off China in the 1860s, Turkestan Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic was created from the Turkestan Krai of Imperial Russia. Its capital was Tashkent, population about 5,000,000, British and Persian forces briefly tried to reach Baku in Azerbaijan and the Turkmen port of Krasnovodsk. Bukhara, Khiva, Samarkand, Kokand, Dushanbe and the former Trans-Caspian province would see various anti-Bolshevik risings over the few years. In 1924, it was split into Tajik ASSR, Turkmen SSR, Uzbek SSR, Kara-Kirghiz Autonomous Oblast, in March 1918, activists of the Young Bukharian Movement informed the Bolsheviks that the Bukharans were ready for the revolution and that the people were awaiting liberation. The Red Army marched to the gates of Bukhara and demanded that the surrender the city to the Young Bukharans. As Russian sources report, the emir responded by murdering the Bolshevik delegation, along several hundred Russian inhabitants of Bukhara. The majority of Bukharans did not support an invasion and the ill-equipped and ill-disciplined Bolshevik army fled back to the Soviet stronghold at Tashkent, however, the emir had won only a temporary respite. As the civil war in Russia wound down, Moscow sent reinforcements to Central Asia, on 2 September 1920, an army of well-disciplined and well equipped Red Army troops under the command of Bolshevik general Mikhail Frunze attacked the city. A nearby anti-Bolshevik stronghold in the Tadjik/Moslem village of Khangir declared its independence shortly afterwards and it was then quickly re-integrated back into Communist Bokhorah. The Bukharan Peoples Republic was proclaimed on 8 October 1920 under Faizullah Khojaev, the overthrow of the Emir was the impetus for the Basmachi Revolt, an anti-Russian rebellion. In 1922, most of the territory of the republic was controlled by Basmachi, Joseph Stalin would later purge and exile many of the local Bukhori people as well as most of the local Jewish community from the former Bukharan Peoples Soviet Republic. Prior to the establishment of the state of Israel, the Bukharian Jews were one of the most isolated Jewish communities in the world, with the establishment of Soviet rule on the territory in 1917, Jewish life seriously deteriorated. Throughout the 1920s and 1930s, thousands of Jews, fleeing religious oppression, confiscation of property, summary arrests, the Khorezm Peoples Soviet Republic was created as the successor to the Khanate of Khiva in February 1920 and officially declared on 26 April 1920. On 20 October 1923, it was transformed into the Khorezm Socialist Soviet Republic, the Kara-Kyrgyz Autonomous Oblast was created on 14 October 1924 within the Russian SFSR from the predominantly Kazakh and Kyrgyz parts of the Turkestan Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic
23.
Iran
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Iran, also known as Persia, officially the Islamic Republic of Iran, is a sovereign state in Western Asia. Comprising a land area of 1,648,195 km2, it is the second-largest country in the Middle East, with 82.8 million inhabitants, Iran is the worlds 17th-most-populous country. It is the country with both a Caspian Sea and an Indian Ocean coastline. The countrys central location in Eurasia and Western Asia, and its proximity to the Strait of Hormuz, Tehran is the countrys capital and largest city, as well as its leading economic and cultural center. Iran is the site of to one of the worlds oldest civilizations, the area was first unified by the Iranian Medes in 625 BC, who became the dominant cultural and political power in the region. The empire collapsed in 330 BC following the conquests of Alexander the Great, under the Sassanid Dynasty, Iran again became one of the leading powers in the world for the next four centuries. Beginning in 633 AD, Arabs conquered Iran and largely displaced the indigenous faiths of Manichaeism and Zoroastrianism by Islam, Iran became a major contributor to the Islamic Golden Age that followed, producing many influential scientists, scholars, artists, and thinkers. During the 18th century, Iran reached its greatest territorial extent since the Sassanid Empire, through the late 18th and 19th centuries, a series of conflicts with Russia led to significant territorial losses and the erosion of sovereignty. Popular unrest culminated in the Persian Constitutional Revolution of 1906, which established a monarchy and the countrys first legislative body. Following a coup instigated by the U. K. Growing dissent against foreign influence and political repression led to the 1979 Revolution, Irans rich cultural legacy is reflected in part by its 21 UNESCO World Heritage Sites, the third-largest number in Asia and 11th-largest in the world. Iran is a member of the UN, ECO, NAM, OIC. Its political system is based on the 1979 Constitution which combines elements of a democracy with a theocracy governed by Islamic jurists under the concept of a Supreme Leadership. A multicultural country comprising numerous ethnic and linguistic groups, most inhabitants are Shia Muslims, the largest ethnic groups in Iran are the Persians, Azeris, Kurds and Lurs. Historically, Iran has been referred to as Persia by the West, due mainly to the writings of Greek historians who called Iran Persis, meaning land of the Persians. As the most extensive interactions the Ancient Greeks had with any outsider was with the Persians, however, Persis was originally referred to a region settled by Persians in the west shore of Lake Urmia, in the 9th century BC. The settlement was then shifted to the end of the Zagros Mountains. In 1935, Reza Shah requested the international community to refer to the country by its native name, opposition to the name change led to the reversal of the decision, and Professor Ehsan Yarshater, editor of Encyclopædia Iranica, propagated a move to use Persia and Iran interchangeably
24.
Democratic Republic of Afghanistan
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The PDPA came to power through a coup known as the Saur Revolution, which ousted the government of Mohammad Daoud Khan. Daoud was succeeded by Nur Muhammad Taraki as head of state, soon after taking power a power struggle began between the Khalqists led by Taraki and Amin and the Parchamites led by Babrak Karmal. The Khalqists won and the Parcham faction was purged from the party, the most prominent Parcham leaders were exiled to the Eastern Bloc and the Soviet Union. After the Khalq–Parcham struggle, a struggle within the Khalq faction began between Taraki and Amin. Amin won the struggle, and Taraki was killed on his orders and his rule proved unpopular within his own country, and in the Soviet Union. The Soviet Union intervened, supported by the Afghan government, in December 1979, Karmal became the leader of Afghanistan in his place. The Karmal era, lasting from 1979 to 1986, is best known for the Soviet war effort in Afghanistan, the war resulted in large numbers of civilian casualties, as well as millions of refugees who fled into Pakistan and Iran. Karmals policies failed to bring peace to the country. Najibullah pursued a policy of National Reconciliation with the opposition, a new Afghan constitution was introduced in 1987, after the Soviet withdrawal from Afghanistan, the government faced increasing resistance. On the military front, the government proved capable of defeating the opposition in open battle. Geographically, the DRA was bordered by Pakistan in the south and east, Iran in the west, the Soviet Union in the north, Hafizullah Amin, a Khalq, was the coups chief architect. The first conflict between the Khalqists and Parchamites arose when the Khalqists wanted to give PDPA Central Committee membership to military officers who participated in the Saur Revolution. Amin, who opposed the appointment of military officers to the PDPA leadership, altered his position. The PDPA Politburo voted in favour of giving membership to the military officers, to make matters worse for the Parchamites, the term Parcham was, according to Taraki, a word synonymous with factionalism. On 27 June, three months after the revolution, Amin managed to outmaneuver the Parchamites at a Central Committee meeting, the meeting decided that the Khalqists had the exclusive right to formulate and decide policy, which left the Parchamites impotent. Later, a coup planned by the Parchamites, and led by Karmal, was discovered by the Khalqist leadership, the discovery of the coup prompted a swift reaction, a purge of Parchamites began. Parchamite ambassadors were recalled, but few returned, for instance, Karmal, when Taraki realized the degree of popular dissatisfaction with the reform he began to curtail the policy. Afghanistans long history of resistance to any type of strong centralized governmental control further undermined his authority, consequently, much of the land reform was not actually implemented nationwide
25.
Caspian Sea
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The Caspian Sea is the largest enclosed inland body of water on Earth by area, variously classed as the worlds largest lake or a full-fledged sea. It is in a basin located between Europe and Asia. It is bounded by Kazakhstan to the northeast, Russia to the northwest, Azerbaijan to the west, Iran to the south, the Caspian Sea lies to the east of the Caucasus Mountains and to the west of the vast steppe of Central Asia. In its northern part, the Caspian Depression lies 28 to 130 m below sea level, the sea bed in the southern part reaches as low as 1023 m below sea level, which is the second lowest natural depression on earth after Lake Baikal. The ancient inhabitants of its coast perceived the Caspian Sea as an ocean, probably because of its saltiness, the sea has a surface area of 371,000 km2 and a volume of 78,200 km3. It has a salinity of approximately 1. 2%, about a third of the salinity of most seawater, the word Caspian is derived from the name of the Caspi, an ancient people who lived to the southwest of the sea in Transcaucasia. Strabo wrote that to the country of the Albanians belongs also the territory called Caspiane, which was named after the Caspian tribe, as was also the sea, but the tribe has now disappeared. Moreover, the Caspian Gates, which is the name of a region in Irans Tehran province, the Iranian city of Qazvin shares the root of its name with that of the sea. In fact, the traditional Arabic name for the sea itself is Bahr al-Qazwin, in classical antiquity among Greeks and Persians it was called the Hyrcanian Ocean. In Persian antiquity, as well as in modern Iran, it is known as the دریای خزر, Daryā-e Khazar, ancient Arabic sources refer to it as Baḥr Gīlān meaning the Gilan Sea. Turkic languages refer to the lake as Khazar Sea, in Turkmen, the name is Hazar deňizi, in Azeri, it is Xəzər dənizi, and in modern Turkish, it is Hazar denizi. An exception is Kazakh, where it is called Каспий теңізі, old Russian sources call it the Khvalyn or Khvalis Sea after the name of Khwarezmia. In modern Russian, it is called Каспи́йское мо́ре, Kaspiyskoye more, the Caspian Sea, like the Black Sea, Namak Lake, and Lake Urmia, is a remnant of the ancient Paratethys Sea. It became landlocked about 5.5 million years ago due to tectonic uplift and a fall in sea level. Due to the current inflow of water, the Caspian Sea is a freshwater lake in its northern portions, and is most saline on the Iranian shore. Currently, the salinity of the Caspian is one third that of Earths oceans. The Caspian Sea is the largest inland body of water in the world, the coastlines of the Caspian are shared by Azerbaijan, Iran, Kazakhstan, Russia, and Turkmenistan. The Caspian is divided into three distinct regions, the Northern, Middle, and Southern Caspian
26.
Kazakh Soviet Socialist Republic
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It was created on December 5,1936 from the Kazakh ASSR, an autonomous republic of the Russian SFSR. At 2,717,300 square kilometres in area, it was the second largest republic in the USSR, today it is the independent state of Kazakhstan in Central Asia. During its existence as a Soviet republic it was led by the Communist Party of the Kazakh SSR, on October 25,1990, the Supreme Soviet of the Kazakh SSR declared its sovereignty on its soil. Nursultan Nazarbayev was elected as president – a role he has remained in to this day, the Soviet republic was renamed the Republic of Kazakhstan on December 10,1991, which declared its independence six days later, on December 16,1991. The Soviet Union was disbanded on December 26,1991 by the Soviet of Nationalities, the Republic of Kazakhstan, the legal successor to the Kazakh SSR, was admitted to the United Nations on March 2,1992. The country is named after the Kazakh people, Turkic-speaking former nomads who sustained a powerful khanate in the region before Russian and then Soviet domination. The Soviet Unions spaceport, now known as the Baikonur Cosmodrome, was located in this republic at Tyuratam, established on August 26,1920, it was initially called Kirghiz ASSR and was a part of the Russian SFSR. On April 15–19,1925, it was renamed Kazak ASSR and on December 5,1936 it was elevated to the status of a Union-level republic, Kazakh Soviet Socialist Republic. Between 1932 and 1933, a famine struck Kazakhstan, killing 1.5 million people during the catastrophe of whom 1.3 million were ethnic Kazakhs, during the 1950s and 1960s Soviet citizens were urged to settle in the Virgin Lands of the Kazakh Soviet Socialist Republic. The influx of immigrants, mostly Russians, skewed the ethnic mixture, independence has caused many of these newcomers to emigrate. Only 168-200 civilians were killed or executed, the events were then spilled over to Shymkent, Pavlodar, Karaganda and Taldykorgan. On March 25,1990, Kazakhstan held its first elections with Nursultan Nazarbayev, later that year on October 25, it then declared sovereignty. The republic participated in a referendum to preserve the union in a different entity with 94. 1% voted in favor and it did not happened when hardline communists in Moscow took control of the government in August. Nazarbayev then condemned the failed coup, as a result of those events, the Kazakh SSR was renamed to the Republic of Kazakhstan on December 10,1991. It became independent on December 16, becoming the last republic to secede and its capital was the site of the Alma-Ata Protocol on December 21,1991 that dissolved the Soviet Union and formed the Commonwealth of Independent States in its place which Kazakhstan joined. The Soviet Union officially ceased to exist as a state on December 26,1991. On January 28,1993, the new Constitution of Kazakhstan was officially adopted, according to the 1897 census, the earliest census taken in the region, Kazakhs constituted 81. 7% of the total population within the territory of contemporary Kazakhstan. The Russian population in Kazakhstan was 454,402, or 10, table, Ethnic Composition of Kazakhstan One of the greatest factors that shaped the ethnic composition of Kazakhstan was 1920s and 1930s famines
27.
Uzbek Soviet Socialist Republic
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The Uzbek Soviet Socialist Republic, also referred to as Soviet Uzbekistan or the Republic of Uzbekistan was one of the republics of the Soviet Union existed from 1924 to 1991. It was governed by the Uzbek branch of the Soviet Communist Party, from 1990 to 1991, it was the sovereign part of the Soviet Union with its own legislation. Beginning 20 June 1990, Uzbek SSR adopted the Declaration of State Sovereignty within its borders, Islam Karimov became the republics inaugural president. On 31 August 1991, the Uzbek Soviet Socialist Republic was renamed the Republic of Uzbekistan, a doubly landlocked Soviet republic in Central Asia. Uzbekistan was bordered by Kazakhstan to the north, Tajikistan to the southeast, Kirghizia to the northeast, Afghanistan to the south, the name, Uzbekistan, literally means Home of the Free, taken from an amalgamation of uz, bek, and -stan. Officially, the name Uzbek Soviet Socialist Republic was the name as defined by its 1937 and 1978 Constitutions. In 1924, the borders of political units in Central Asia were changed along ethnic lines determined by Vladimir Lenin’s Commissar for Nationalities, the next year Uzbekistan became one of the republics of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. In 1928, the collectivization of land into state farms was initiated, Uzbekistan included the Tajik ASSR until 1929, when the Tajik ASSR was upgraded to an equal status. In 1930, the Uzbek SSR capital was relocated from Samarkand to Tashkent, in 1936, Uzbekistan was enlarged with the addition of the Karakalpak ASSR taken from the Kazakh SSR in the last stages of the national delimitation in the Soviet Union. That same year in December, it was renamed to the Uzbek Soviet Socialist Republic, further bits and pieces of territory were transferred several times between Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan after World War II. In 1937–38, during the Great Purge, a number of alleged nationalists were executed, including Faizullah Khojaev, during World War II, many industries were relocated to Uzbekistan from vulnerable locations in western regions of the USSR to keep them safe. Large numbers of Russians, Ukrainians and other nationalities accompanied the factories and this included large numbers of ethnic Koreans, Crimean Tatars, and Chechens. During the Soviet period, Islam became a point for the anti-religious drives of Communist authorities. The government closed most mosques, and religious schools became anti-religious museums, on the positive side was the virtual elimination of illiteracy, even in rural areas. Only a small percentage of the population was literate before 1917, another major development, one with future catastrophic impact, was the drive initiated in the early 1960s to substantially increase cotton production in the republic. This drive led to overzealous irrigation withdrawals of irrigation water from the Amu Darya, towards the end of the Soviet–Afghan War, several troops crossed the Uzbek border from Afghanistan as part of the its withdrawal on 15 February 1989. The Communist Party was the legal party in the Uzbek SSR until 1990. The first secretary, or head, of the Communist Party of Uzbekistan was consistently an Uzbek, long-time leader of the Uzbek SSR was Sharof Rashidov, head of the Communist Party of Uzbekistan from 1959 to 1983
28.
Russian Empire
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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
29.
Khanate of Khiva
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The Khanate of Khiva was a Central Asian Turkic state that existed in the historical region of Khwarezm from 1511 to 1920, except for a period of Afsharid occupation by Nadir Shah between 1740–1746. The Khans were the descendants of Shayban, the fifth son of Jochi. It covered present western Uzbekistan, southwestern Kazakhstan and much of Turkmenistan before Russian arrival at second half of 19th century, in 1873, the Khanate of Khiva was much reduced in size and became a Russian protectorate. Following the Russian Revolution of 1917, Khiva had a revolution too, in 1924, the area was formally incorporated into the Soviet Union and today is largely a part of Karakalpakstan and Xorazm Province in Uzbekistan. The region that would become the Khanate of Khiva was a part of the Chagatai Khanate with its capital at Old Urgench, however, Timur regarded the state as a rival to Samarkand, and after a course of five campaigns, he destroyed Old Urgench completely in 1388. In 1505, Uzbeks under Muhammad Shaybani captured Khwarezm from the Timurids, the Safavids defeated Shaybani in 1510 and took control of the region. But in 1511, the Uzbek group the Yadigarid Shaybanids rebelled against Safavid rule, due to a shift in the course of the Amu-Darya in 1576, Old Urgench was finally abandoned. The political center of the region shifted southward, and, in 1619, much of Khivas later history was framed against the khanates relationship with the great powers Russia and Britain. Upon receiving the men, the Khivan khan, Shir Ghazi, set up camp under the pretense of goodwill, then ambushed and slaughtered the envoys, peter the Great, indebted after wars with the Ottoman Empire and Sweden, did nothing. The khanate was a dependency of Nadir Shahs Persia between 1740-1747, Tsar Paul I also attempted to conquer the khanate, but his expedition was woefully undermanned and undersupplied, and was recalled en route due to his assassination. Tsar Alexander I had no ambitions, and it was under Tsars Nicholas I. A notable episode during The Great Game involved a Russian expedition to Khiva in 1839, the expedition, led by General V. A. Perovsky, the commander of the Orenburg garrison, consisted of 5,200 infantry, at the same time, Britain, anxious to annex Khiva, launched its own effort to free the slaves. Major Todd, the senior British political officer stationed in Herat dispatched Captain James Abbott, disguised as an Afghan, on Christmas Eve,1839, for Khiva. Abbott arrived in late January 1840 and, although the khan was suspicious of his identity and he left on 7 March 1840, for Fort Alexandrovsk, and was subsequently betrayed by his guide, robbed, then released when the bandits realized the origin and destination of his letter. His superiors in Herat, not knowing of his fate, sent another officer, Lieutenant Richmond Shakespear, after him. Shakespear had more success than Abbott, he convinced the khan to free all Russian subjects under his control, the freed slaves and Shakespear arrived in Fort Alexandrovsk on 15 August 1840, and Russia lost its primary motive for the conquest of Khiva, for the time being. A permanent Russian presence on the Aral Sea began in 1848 with the building of Fort Aralsk at the mouth of the Syr Darya
30.
Khwarezm
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It was the center of the Iranian Khwarezmian civilization and a series of kingdoms such as the Persian Empire, whose capitals were Kath, Gurganj and – from the 16th century on – Khiva. Today Khwarezm belongs partly to Uzbekistan, partly to Kazakhstan and partly to Turkmenistan, Khwarezm has been known also as Chorasmia, Khwarezmia, Khwarizm, Khwarazm, Khorezm, Khoresm, Khorasam, Kharazm, Harezm, Horezm, and Chorezm. C. E. Bosworth, however, believes the Persian name to be made up of xor and zam, designating the land from which the sun rises, another view is that the Iranian compound stands for lowland from khar low and zam land. Khwarezm is indeed the lowest region in Central Asia, located on the delta of the Amu Darya on the shores of the Aral Sea. Some of the early scholars believed Khwarezm to be what ancient Avestic texts refer to as Airyanem Vaejah. These sources claim that Old Urgench, which was the capital of ancient Khwarezm for many years, was actually Ourva, the eighth land of Ahura Mazda mentioned in the Pahlavi text of Vendidad. Al-Biruni starts giving names only with the Afrighid line of Khwarazmshahs, having placed the ascension of Afrighids in 616 of the Seleucid era, like Soghdiana, Khwarezm was an expansion of the BMAC culture during the Bronze Age which later fused with Indo-Iranians during their migrations around 1000 BC. Early Iron Age states arose from this cultural exchange, ruled by the native Afrighid Dynasty. It was at point that Khwarezm entered the historical record with the Achamenid expansion. An East Iranian language, known as Khwarezmian language, was spoken in Khwarezm proper until soon after the Mongol invasion and it was closely related to Sogdian. In the very part of its history, the inhabitants of the area were from Iranian stock. Sometime before the Achaemenid king Cyrus the Greats death in 530 BC, while he was dying, he appointed his son Smerdis/Bardiya as the governor of the region, along with Bactriana, Carmania, and the other eastern provinces of the empire. And the Persian poet Ferdowsi mentions Persian cities like Afrasiab and Chach in abundance in his epic Shahnama, the kings emissary offered to lead Alexanders armies against his own enemies, west over the Caspian towards the Black Sea. Although largely independent during the Seleucid, Bactrian and Arsacid dynasties, it is known that Khwarezm, yaqut al-Hamawi verifies that Khwarezm was a regional capital of the Sassanid empire. It was also vassal kingdom during periods of Kushans, Hephthalites, the Afrighids were a native Chorasmian dynasty which ruled over the kingdom of Khwarezm from 305 until 995 A. D. Sometimes it was under Sassanid control, in 712 Khwarezm was conquered by the Arab Umayyads. In 995, they overthrew the Afrighids of Kath and themselves assumed the traditional title of Khwarazm-Shah. Briefly, the area was under Samanid suzerainty, before it passed to Mahmud of Ghazna in 1017, in the 12th century, the Khwarezmid Empire was founded and, in the early 13th century, ruled over all of Persia under the Shah ʿAlāʾ al-Dīn Muhammad II
31.
Mikhail Skobelev
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Mikhail Dmitrievich Skobelev was a Russian general famous for his conquest of Central Asia and heroism during the Russo-Turkish War of 1877–1878. Dressed in white uniform and mounted on a horse, and always in the thickest of the fray, he was known. During a campaign in Khiva, his Turkmen opponents called him goz zanli or Bloody Eyes, british Field Marshal Bernard Montgomery wrote that Skobelev was the worlds ablest single commander between 1870 and 1914 and called him a skilful and inspiring leader. Skobelev was born in Saint Petersburg on 29 September 1843, later, dressed as a Turkoman, he intrepidly explored in a hostile country the route from Khiva to Igdy on the old riverbed of the Oxus. He was promoted to major-general, decorated with the Order of St George, in the Turkish War of 1877 he seized the bridge over the Siret at Barboşi in April, in June they crossed the Danube with the 8th corps. Skobelev commanded the Caucasian Cossack Brigade in the attack of the Green Hills at the battle of Pleven. An infantry division under Skobelevs command assailed the Grivitsa redoubt to the north, schakofsky managed to take two redoubts, but by the end of the day the Ottoman forces succeeded in repulsing all the attacks and retaking lost ground. Russian losses amounted to 7,300, and the Ottomans to 2,000, the Romanian 4th division led by General George Manu took the Grivitsa redoubt after four bloody assaults, personally assisted by Prince Carol. The next day the Turks retook the southern redoubts, but could not dislodge the Romanians, from the beginning of September, Russian losses had amounted to roughly 20,000, while the Ottomans lost 5,000. In January 1878 he crossed the Balkans in a severe snowstorm defeating the Turks at Sheynovo, around 8,000 Turkmen soldiers and civilians, including women and children were slaughtered in a bloodbath in their flight, along with an additional 6,500 who died inside the fortress. The Russians massacre included all Turkmen males in the fortress who had not escaped, the defeat at Geok Tepe and the following slaughter broke the Turkmen resistance and decided the fate of Transcaspia, which was annexed to the Russian Empire. The great slaughter proved too much to stomach reducing the Akhal-Tekke country to submission, Skobelev was removed from his command because of the massacre. He was advancing on Ashkhabad and Kalat i-Nadiri when he was disavowed and recalled to Moscow and he was given the command at Minsk. The official reason for his transfer to Europe was to appease European public opinion over the slaughter at Geok Tepe, some have suggested that he was suffering from delusions of grandeur and showing signs of political ambition. In the last years of his life, Skobelev engaged actively in politics, supporting the ideas of Russian nationalism and he has also been credited as one of the earliest promoters of the concept Russia for Russians. At the beginning of 1882, he made speeches in Paris and in Moscow and he was at once recalled to St Petersburg. While he was staying at a Moscow hotel, on his way to his estate in the country, in Russia he was a very popular man at the time of his death, and not surprisingly, his death aroused suspicion among many. After all, he was a young and vigorous man
32.
Geok Tepe
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Geok Tepe, Gökdepe or Gokdepe is a former fortress of the Turkmens, in Turkmenistan, in the oasis of Ahal, on the Transcaspian railway,28 miles north-west of Ashgabat. Gökdepe is the Russian version of the Turkic name meaning Blue Hill from the Turkmen gök blue, today it lies along the M37 highway. The fortress consisted of a walled enclosure 1 3⁄4 miles in circuit, in December 1880 Geok Tepe was attacked by 6,000 Russians under General Mikhail Skobelev against 25,000 defenders. The siege of Geok Tepe lasted twenty-three days, after which the city was taken by storm, although they encountered heavy resistance, the Russian forces were eventually able to break in by digging a tunnel underneath a portion of the wall, then detonating a mine underneath the wall. On January 12,1881, the mine was detonated, once the fortress was breached, the Russian troops stormed in. Several hundred defenders were killed in the explosion, and many more were killed in the fighting that ensued. Eventually, the defenders, along with the 40,000 civilians inside the fortress, fled across the desert, around 8,000 Turkmen soldiers and civilians were killed during flight, along with an additional 6,500 that had died inside the fortress. Russian casualties were 398 killed and 669 wounded, see Battle of Geok Tepe and Battle of Geok Tepe. Saparmurat Hajji Mosque was built to commemorate the defeat and is noted for its blue coloured roof. Location and image Picture of the mosque in Geok Tepe Another picture of the mosque
33.
Transcaspian Oblast
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Transcaspian Oblast, or Transcaspia, was the section of Russian Empire and early Soviet Russia to the east of the Caspian Sea during the second half of the 19th century until 1924. Part of Russian Turkestan, Transcaspian Oblast corresponds roughly to the territory of present-day Turkmenistan, Transcaspia was conquered by Russia in 1879-1885, in a series of campaigns led by Generals Lomakin, Skobelev, and Annenkov. Until 1898 Transcaspia was part of the Governor-Generalship of Caucasus administered from Tiflis and these abuses were fully exposed by the Pahlen Report of 1908-10. During the revolutionary period of 1917-19 parts of Transcaspia were briefly occupied by British Indian forces from Meshed, the oblast was one of the last centres of Basmachi resistance to Bolshevik rule, with the last of the rebellious Turkmen fleeing across the border to Afghanistan and Iran in 1922-23. As of 1897,382,487 people populated the oblast, turkmens constituted the majority of the population. Significant minorities consisted of Kazakhs and Russians
34.
Russian Turkestan
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That year the Russian forces took the city of Tashkent under the leadership of General Mikhail Chernyayev expanding the territories of Turkestan Oblast. Chernyayev had exceeded his orders but Saint Petersburg recognized the annexation in any case, an account of the Russian conquest of Tashkent was written in Urus leshkerining Türkistanda tarikh 1262-1269 senelarda qilghan futuhlari by Mullah Khalibay Mambetov. In 1867 Turkestan was made a separate Governor-Generalship, under its first Governor-General and its capital was Tashkent and it consisted initially of three oblasts, Syr Darya, Semirechye Oblast and the Zeravshan Okrug. In 1894 the Transcaspian Region, which had conquered in 1881–1885 by Generals Mikhail Skobelev. The administration of the region had an almost purely military character throughout, Von Kaufman died in 1882, and a committee under Fedor Karlovich Giers toured the Krai and drew up proposals for reform, which were implemented after 1886. In 1888 the new Trans-Caspian railway, begun at Uzun-Ada on the shores of the Caspian Sea in 1877 and it was quite unlike European Russia. In 1908 Count Konstantin Konstantinovich Pahlen led another commission to Turkestan. The Jadid educational reform movement which originated among Tatars spread among Muslims of Central Asia under Russian rule, in 1897 the railway reached Tashkent, and finally in 1906 a direct rail link with European Russia was opened across the steppe from Orenburg to Tashkent. This caused considerable discontent amongst the population as these settlers took scarce land. In 1916 discontent boiled over in the Basmachi Revolt, sparked by a decree conscripting the natives into labour battalions, thousands of settlers were killed, and this was matched by Russian reprisals, particularly against the nomadic population. To escape Russians slaughtering them in 1916, Uzbeks, Kazakhs, xinjiang became a sanctuary for fleeing Kazakhs escaping the Russians after the Muslims faced conscription by the Russian government. The Turkmen, Kyrgyz, and Kazakhs were all impacted by the 1916 insurrection caused by the conscription decreed by the Russian government, the corvée conscription issued on 25 June 1916. Order had not really been restored by the time the February Revolution took place in 1917, resistance to the Bolsheviks by the local population continued well into the beginning of the 1930s. After the foundation of the Soviet Union it was split into the Turkmen Soviet Socialist Republic, the Tajik Soviet Socialist Republic was formed out of part of the Uzbek SSR in 1929, and in 1936 the Kyrgyz SSR was separated from Kazakh Soviet Socialist Republic. After the collapse of the Soviet Union, these gained their independence. Semirechye Cossacks Orenburg Cossacks Turkestan Military District History of Uzbekistan History of Kazakhstan History of Turkmenistan History of Tajikistan Eugene Schuyler Turkistan 18762 Vols, curzon Russia in Central Asia 1889 Ген. Терентьев История Завоевания Средней Азии19033 Vols, Бартольд История Культурной Жизни Туркестана1927 Count K. K. Pahlen Mission to Turkestan 1964 Seymour Becker Russias Protectorates in Central Asia, Bukhara, jadidism in Central Asia 1997 T. K. by Tsugitaka Sato, Londres,2004
35.
Tashkent
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Tashkent is the capital and largest city of Uzbekistan. The officially registered population of the city in 2012 was about 2,309,300, due to its position in Central Asia, Tashkent came under Sogdian and Turkic influence early in its history, before Islam in the 8th century AD. After its destruction by Genghis Khan in 1219, the city was rebuilt, in 1865 it was conquered by the Russian Empire, and in Soviet times witnessed major growth and demographic changes due to forced deportations from throughout the Soviet Union. Today, as the capital of an independent Uzbekistan, Tashkent retains a multi-ethnic population with ethnic Uzbeks as the majority, during its long history, Tashkent has had various changes in names and political and religious affiliations. Tashkent was settled by ancient people as an oasis on the Chirchik River, in ancient times, this area contained Beitian, probably the summer capital of the Kangju confederacy. In pre-Islamic and early Islamic times, the town and the province were known as Chach, the Shahnameh of Ferdowsi also refers to the city as Chach. Later the town came to be known as Chachkand/Chashkand, meaning Chach City, the principality of Chach had a square citadel built around the 5th to 3rd centuries BC, some 8 kilometres south of the Syr Darya River. By the 7th century AD, Chach had more than 30 towns, the Buddhist monk Xuánzàng 玄奘, who travelled from China to India through Central Asia, mentioned the name of the city as Zhěshí 赭時. The Chinese chronicles Suí shū 隋書, Běi shǐ 北史 and Táng shū 唐書, in the early 8th century, the region was conquered by Muslim Arabs. The modern Turkic name of Tashkent comes from Kara-Khanid rule in the 10th century, after the 16th century, the name evolved from Chachkand/Chashkand to Tashkand. The modern spelling of Tashkent reflects Russian orthography and 20th-century Soviet influence, the city was destroyed by Genghis Khan in 1219 and lost much of its population as a result of the Mongols destruction of the Khwarezmid Empire in 1220. Under the Timurid and subsequent Shaybanid dynasties the citys population and culture gradually revived as a prominent strategic center of scholarship, commerce, in 1809, Tashkent was annexed to the Khanate of Kokand. At the time, Tashkent had a population of around 100,000 and was considered the richest city in Central Asia and it prospered greatly through trade with Russia, but chafed under Kokand’s high taxes. The Tashkent clergy also favored the clergy of Bukhara over that of Kokand, however, before the Emir of Bukhara could capitalize on this discontent, the Russian army arrived. While a small contingent staged an attack, the main force penetrated the walls. Although defense was stiff, the Russians captured the city two days of heavy fighting and the loss of only 25 dead as opposed to several thousand of the defenders. Chernyayev, dubbed the Lion of Tashkent by city elders, staged a campaign to win the population over. The Tsar liberally rewarded Chernyayev and his men with medals and bonuses, but regarded the general as a loose cannon
36.
October Revolution
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It took place with an armed insurrection in Petrograd on 25 October 1917. During this time, urban workers began to organize into councils wherein revolutionaries criticized the provisional government and this immediately initiated the establishment of the Russian Socialist Federative Soviet Republic, the worlds first self-proclaimed socialist state. The revolution was led by the Bolsheviks, who used their influence in the Petrograd Soviet to organize the armed forces, Bolshevik Red Guards forces under the Military Revolutionary Committee began the takeover of government buildings on 24 October 1917. The following day, the Winter Palace, was captured, the long-awaited Constituent Assembly elections were held on 12 November 1917. The Bolsheviks only won 175 seats in the 715-seat legislative body, coming in second behind the Socialist Revolutionary party, the Constituent Assembly was to first meet on 28 November 1917, but its convocation was delayed until 5 January 1918 by the Bolsheviks. On its first and only day in session, the body rejected Soviet decrees on peace and land, as the revolution was not universally recognized, there followed the struggles of the Russian Civil War and the creation of the Soviet Union in 1922. At first, the event was referred to as the October coup or the Uprising of 25th, in Russian, however, переворот has a similar meaning to revolution and also means upheaval or overturn, so coup is not necessarily the correct translation. With time, the term October Revolution came into use and it is also known as the November Revolution having occurred in November according to the Gregorian Calendar. The Great October Socialist Revolution was the name for the October Revolution in the Soviet Union after the 10th anniversary of the Revolution in 1927. The February Revolution had toppled Tsar Nicolas II of Russia, however, the provisional government was weak and riven by internal dissension. It continued to wage World War I, which became increasingly unpopular, a nationwide crisis developed in Russia, affecting social, economic, and political relations. Disorder in industry and transport had intensified, and difficulties in obtaining provisions had increased, gross industrial production in 1917 had decreased by over 36% from what it had been in 1914. In the autumn, as much as 50% of all enterprises were closed down in the Urals, the Donbas, at the same time, the cost of living increased sharply. Real wages fell about 50% from what they had been in 1913, russias national debt in October 1917 had risen to 50 billion rubles. Of this, debts to foreign governments constituted more than 11 billion rubles, the country faced the threat of financial bankruptcy. In these months alone, more than a million took part in strikes. Workers established control over production and distribution in many factories and plants in a social revolution, by October 1917, there had been over 4,000 peasant uprisings against landowners. When the Provisional Government sent punitive detachments, it only enraged the peasants
37.
Basmachi movement
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The Basmachi movement or Basmachi Revolt was an uprising against Russian Imperial and Soviet rule by the Muslim peoples of Central Asia. The movements roots lay in the violence of 1916 that erupted when the Russian Empire began to draft Muslims for army service during World War I. In the months following the October 1917 Revolution the Bolsheviks seized power in parts of the Russian Empire. Turkestani Muslim political movements attempted to form a government in the city of Kokand. The Bolsheviks launched an assault on Kokand in February 1918 and carried out a massacre of up to 25,000 people. The massacre rallied support to the Basmachi movements who waged a guerrilla and conventional war that seized control of parts of the Fergana Valley. The fortunes of the decentralized movement fluctuated throughout the early 1920s, after major Red Army campaigns and concessions regarding economic and Islamic practices in the mid-1920s, the military fortunes and popular support of the Basmachi declined. Resistance to Russian rule and Soviet leadership did flare up again, to a lesser extent, prior to World War I, Russian Turkestan was ruled from Tashkent as a Krai or Governor-Generalship. To the east of Tashkent, the Ferghana Valley was an ethnically diverse, under Russian rule, it was converted into a major cotton-growing region. On the whole, living standards did not improve, and many farmers became indebted, many criminals organized into bands, forming the basis for the early Basmachi movement when it began in the Ferghana Valley. Cotton price-fixing during the First World War made matters worse, Muslim clergy decried the gambling and alcoholism that became commonplace, and crime rose considerably. Major violence in Russian Turkestan broke out in 1916, when the Tsarist government ended its exemption of Muslims from military service, the result was a general revolt, centered in modern-day Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan, which was only put down by martial law. Tensions between Central Asians and Russian settlers led to large-scale massacres on both sides, thousands died, and hundreds of thousands more fled, often into neighboring Republic of China. The 1916 rebellion was the first anti-Russian incident on a scale in Central Asia. The suppression of the rebellion was a campaign of annihilation against the Kazakh. Hundreds of thousands of Kazakh and Kyrgyz people were killed or expelled, the ethnic clensing had its roots in the Tsarist government policy of ethnic homogenization. In the aftermath of the February Revolution of 1917, Muslim political forces began to organize, members of the All-Russian Muslim council formed the Shura-i Islam, a Jadidist body that sought a federated, democratic state with autonomy for Muslims. More conservative religious scholars formed the Ulema Jemyeti, more concerned with safeguarding Islamic institutions, together, these Muslim nationalists formed a coalition, but it fell apart after the October Revolution, when the Jadids lent their support to the Bolsheviks who had seized power
38.
World War II
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World War II, also known as the Second World War, was a global war that lasted from 1939 to 1945, although related conflicts began earlier. It involved the vast majority of the worlds countries—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing alliances, the Allies and the Axis. It was the most widespread war in history, and directly involved more than 100 million people from over 30 countries. Marked by mass deaths of civilians, including the Holocaust and the bombing of industrial and population centres. These made World War II the deadliest conflict in human history, from late 1939 to early 1941, in a series of campaigns and treaties, Germany conquered or controlled much of continental Europe, and formed the Axis alliance with Italy and Japan. Under the Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact of August 1939, Germany and the Soviet Union partitioned and annexed territories of their European neighbours, Poland, Finland, Romania and the Baltic states. In December 1941, Japan attacked the United States and European colonies in the Pacific Ocean, and quickly conquered much of the Western Pacific. The Axis advance halted in 1942 when Japan lost the critical Battle of Midway, near Hawaii, in 1944, the Western Allies invaded German-occupied France, while the Soviet Union regained all of its territorial losses and invaded Germany and its allies. During 1944 and 1945 the Japanese suffered major reverses in mainland Asia in South Central China and Burma, while the Allies crippled the Japanese Navy, thus ended the war in Asia, cementing the total victory of the Allies. World War II altered the political alignment and social structure of the world, the United Nations was established to foster international co-operation and prevent future conflicts. The victorious great powers—the United States, the Soviet Union, China, the United Kingdom, the Soviet Union and the United States emerged as rival superpowers, setting the stage for the Cold War, which lasted for the next 46 years. Meanwhile, the influence of European great powers waned, while the decolonisation of Asia, most countries whose industries had been damaged moved towards economic recovery. Political integration, especially in Europe, emerged as an effort to end pre-war enmities, the start of the war in Europe is generally held to be 1 September 1939, beginning with the German invasion of Poland, Britain and France declared war on Germany two days later. The dates for the beginning of war in the Pacific include the start of the Second Sino-Japanese War on 7 July 1937, or even the Japanese invasion of Manchuria on 19 September 1931. Others follow the British historian A. J. P. Taylor, who held that the Sino-Japanese War and war in Europe and its colonies occurred simultaneously and this article uses the conventional dating. Other starting dates sometimes used for World War II include the Italian invasion of Abyssinia on 3 October 1935. The British historian Antony Beevor views the beginning of World War II as the Battles of Khalkhin Gol fought between Japan and the forces of Mongolia and the Soviet Union from May to September 1939, the exact date of the wars end is also not universally agreed upon. It was generally accepted at the time that the war ended with the armistice of 14 August 1945, rather than the formal surrender of Japan
39.
Communist Party of the Soviet Union
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The Communist Party of the Soviet Union, abbreviated in English as CPSU, was the founding and ruling political party of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. The party was founded in 1912 by the Bolsheviks, a group led by Vladimir Lenin which seized power in the aftermath of the October Revolution of 1917. The party was dissolved on 29 August 1991 on Soviet territory soon after a failed coup détat and was abolished on 6 November 1991 on Russian territory. The highest body within the CPSU was the party Congress, which convened every five years, when the Congress was not in session, the Central Committee was the highest body. Because the Central Committee met twice a year, most day-to-day duties and responsibilities were vested in the Politburo, the Secretariat, and the Orgburo. The party leader was the head of government and held the office of either General Secretary, Premier or head of state, or some of the three offices concurrently—but never all three at the same time. The CPSU, according to its party statute, adhered to Marxism–Leninism, a based on the writings of Vladimir Lenin and Karl Marx. The party pursued state socialism, under which all industries were nationalized, a number of causes contributed to CPSUs loss of control and the dissolution of the Soviet Union. Some historians have written that Gorbachevs policy of glasnost was the root cause, Gorbachev maintained that perestroika without glasnost was doomed to failure anyway. Others have blamed the stagnation and subsequent loss of faith by the general populace in communist ideology. The Russian Socialist Federative Soviet Republic, the worlds first constitutionally socialist state, was established by the Bolsheviks in the aftermath of the October Revolution. Immediately after the Revolution, the new, Lenin-led government implemented socialist reforms, including the transfer of estates, in this context, in 1918, RSDLP became Russian Communist Party and remained so until 1997. Lenin supported world revolution he sought peace with the Central Powers. The treaty was voided after the Allied victory in World War I, in 1921, Lenin proposed the New Economic Policy, a system of state capitalism that started the process of industrialization and recovery from the Civil War. On 30 December 1922, the Russian SFSR joined former territories of the Russian Empire in the Soviet Union, on 9 March 1923, Lenin suffered a stroke, which incapacitated him and effectively ended his role in government. He died on 21 January 1924 and was succeeded by Joseph Stalin, after emerging victorious from a power struggle with Trotsky, Stalin obtained full control of the party and Stalinism was installed as the only ideology of the party. The partys official name was All-Union Communist Party in 1925, Stalins political purge greatly affected the partys configuration, as many party members were executed or sentenced for slave labour. Happening during the timespan of the Great Purge, fascism had ascened to power in Italy, seeing this as a potential threat, the Party actively sought to form collective security alliances with Anti-fascist western powers such as France and Britain
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Russification
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Russification or Russianization is a form of cultural assimilation process during which non-Russian communities, voluntarily or not, give up their culture and language in favor of the Russian one. The major areas of Russification are politics and culture, in politics, an element of Russification is assigning Russian nationals to leading administrative positions in national institutions. In culture, Russification primarily amounts to domination of the Russian language in official business, the shifts in demographics in favour of the ethnic Russian population are sometimes considered as a form of Russification as well. In this sense, although Russification is usually conflated across Russification, Russianization, Russianization and Sovietization, for example, did not automatically lead to Russification – change in language or self-identity of non-Russian peoples to being Russian. An early case of Russification took place in the 16th century in the conquered Khanate of Kazan, the main elements of this process were Christianization and implementation of the Russian language as the sole administrative language. After the Russian defeat in the Crimean War in 1856 and the Polish rebellion of 1863, Russia was populated by many minority groups, and forcing them to accept the Russian culture was an attempt to prevent self-determinationist tendencies and separatism. In the 19th century, Russian settlers on traditional Kirghiz land drove many of the Kirghiz over the border to China, indigenous to large parts of western and central Russia are the Uralic peoples, such as the Vepsians, Mordvins, Maris and Permians. Historically, the Russification of Uralic peoples begins already with the eastward expansion of the East Slavs. The Russification of the Komi began in the 13th to 14th centuries, komi-Russian bilingualism has become the norm over the 19th and has led to increasing Russian influence in the Komi language. As a result, several of Russias indigenous languages and cultures are considered endangered. E. g. between the 1989 and 2002 censuses, the numbers of the Mordvins have totalled over 100,000. Russification intensified after the November Uprising of 1831, and in particular after the January Uprising of 1863, in 1864, the Polish and Belarusian languages were banned in public places, in the 1880s, Polish was banned in schools and on school grounds and offices of Congress Poland. Research and teaching of the Polish language, history or of Catholicism were forbidden, illiteracy rose as Poles refused to learn Russian. Students were beaten for resisting Russification, a Polish underground education network was formed, including the famous Flying University. According to Russian estimates, by 1901 one-third of the inhabitants in the Congress Kingdom was involved in education based on Polish literature. From 1840s Russia even considered introducing Cyrillic script for spelling Polish language, with the first school books printed in 1860s, a similar development took place in Lithuania. Muravyov also banned the use of Latin and Gothic scripts in publishing and he was reported saying, What the Russian bayonet didnt accomplish, the Russian school will. The knygnešiai became a symbol of the resistance of Lithuanians against Russification, the campaign also promoted the Russian Orthodox faith over Catholicism
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Muhammetnazar Gapurow
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Muhammetnazar Gapurowiç Gapurow served as the First Secretary of the Communist Party of the Turkmen SSR from 1969 until 1985. He spent his career in the Komsomol and Communist Party apparatus. Gapurow was born in a village close to Chardzhou in Chardzhou oblast. From 1941 to 1943 he was on duty in the Red Army during World War II. In 1948 Gapurow joined the Communist Party nomenklatura as head of the Propaganda Department at the level in Chardzhou oblast. He graduated from the Pedagogical Institute in Ashgabat in 1954, from 1951 to 1955 he worked as first secretary of the Komsomol organisation, and later he held various party posts before assuming the republics leadership. In 1969 he was appointed first secretary of the Communist Party of the Turkmen SSR, during his time in office, the republic received considerable investment in its modernisation of the gas and oil sectors, and living standards rose significantly for the general population. Gapurows era also witnessed growth in nepotism, regional rivalries. In 1985, incoming General Secretary Mikhail Gorbachev removed Gapurow from his post due to a corruption scandal. He never returned to the arena and held several minor positions in the late 1980s. He authored several books and articles during the Soviet era, mainly on Communist Party, in the 1990s he began writing his memoirs but left them unfinished when he died in 1999. Historical Dictionary of Turkmenistan, p. 64-5, rulers of Soviet Republics Russian biographies project
Turkmenistan
This article incorporates public domain material from the Library of Congress Country Studies website http://lcweb2.loc.gov/frd/cs/.
