Krasnoyarsk Krai
Krasnoyarsk Krai is a federal subject of Russia, with its administrative center in the city of Krasnoyarsk—the third-largest city in Siberia. Comprising half of the Siberian Federal District, Krasnoyarsk Krai is the largest krai in the Russian Federation, the second largest federal subject and the third largest subnational governing body by area in the world, after Sakha and the Australian state of Western Australia; the krai covers an area of 2,339,700 square kilometers, nearly one quarter the size of the entire country of Canada, constituting 13% of the Russian Federation's total area and containing a population of 2,828,187, or just under 2% of its population, per the 2010 Census. The krai lies in the middle of Siberia, occupies nearly half of the Siberian Federal District splitting it in half, stretching 3,000 km from the Sayan Mountains in the south along the Yenisei River to the Taymyr Peninsula in the north, it borders the Sakha Republic, the Tuva Republic, the Republic of Khakassia, Kemerovo and Tyumen Oblasts, the Kara Sea and Laptev Sea of the Arctic Ocean in the north.
The krai is located in the basin of the Arctic Ocean. The main rivers of the krai are the Yenisei, its tributaries: the Kan, the Angara, the Podkamennaya Tunguska, the Nizhnyaya Tunguska. There are several thousand lakes in the krai; the largest lakes include Beloye, Glubokoye, Khantayskoye, Lama, Pyasina and Yessey. The rivers and lakes are rich with fish; the climate is continental with large temperature variations during the year. For the central and southern regions where most of the krai's population lives, long winters and short, hot summers are characteristic; the territory of Krasnoyarsk Krai experiences conditions of three climate belts: Arctic and moderate. In the north there are less than 40 days with temperature above 10 °C, while in the south there are 110–120 such days; the average temperature in January is − 18 °C in the south. The average temperature in July is +20 °C in the south; the annual precipitation is 316 millimeters. Snow covers the central regions of the krai from early November until late March.
The peaks of the Sayan Mountains higher than 2,400–2,600 m and those of the Putorana Plateau higher than 1,000–1,300 m are covered with permanent snow. Permafrost is widespread in the north; the coastline contains a number of prominent peninsulas - from west to east the main ones are the Minina Peninsula, Mikhaylova Peninsula, the Taymyr Peninsula and the Khara-Tumus Peninsula. There are a large number of islands off the krai's coast, the most prominent of which are Sibiryakov Island, Nosok Island, Dikson Island, Vern Island, Brekhovskiye Island, Krestovskiy Island, the Kamennye Islands, the Zveroboy Islands, the Labyrintovye Islands, the Plavnikovye Islands, Kolosovykh Island, the Mona Islands, Rykacheva Island, Gavrilova Island and Prodolgovatyy Islands, the Nordenskiöld Archipelago, the Firnley Islands, the Heiberg Islands, Starokadomsky Island, Maly Taymyr Island, the Komsomolskaya Pravda Islands, the Faddey Islands, the Saint Peter Islands. There are a number of islands further out that fall under the administration of Krasnoyarsk Krai - the most prominent being Bolshoy Island, Sverdrup Island, the Izvestiy TSIK Islands, the Arkticheskiy Institut Islands, the Kirov Islands, Uyedineniya Island, Voronina Island, Severnaya Zemlya, Ushakov Island.
The highest point of the krai is Grandiozny Peak in the East Sayan Mountains at an elevation of 2,922 meters. According to archaeologists, the first people reached Siberia circa 40,000 BCE; the grave-mounds and monuments of the Scythian culture in Krasnoyarsk Krai belong to the 7th century BCE and are ones of the oldest in Eurasia. A prince's grave, the Kurgan Arshan, discovered in 2001, is located in the krai. Russian settlement of the area began in the 17th century. After the construction of the Trans-Siberian Railway the Russian colonization of the area increased. During both the Tsarist and the Bolsheviks' times the territory of Krasnoyarsk Krai was used as a place of exile of political enemies; the first leaders of the Soviet state, Vladimir Lenin and Joseph Stalin were exiled to what is now the krai in 1897–1900 and 1903, respectively. In Stalin's era numerous Gulag camps were located in the region. In 1822, the Yeniseysk Governorate was created with Krasnoyarsk as its administrative center that covered territory similar to that of the current krai.
On June 30, 1908, in the basin of the Podkamennaya Tunguska River, there occurred a powerful explosion most to have been caused by the air burst of a large meteoroid or comet fragment at an altitude of 5–10 kilometers above Earth's surface. The force of the explosion is estimated to be about 10–15 megatons, it killed thousands of reindeer. Krasnoyarsk Krai was created in 1934 after disaggregation of the West Siberian and East Siberian Krais and included Taymyr and Evenk Autonomous Okrugs and Khakas Autono
Romanization of Russian
Romanization of Russian is the process of transliterating the Russian language from the Cyrillic script into the Latin script. As well as its primary use for citing Russian names and words in languages which use a Latin alphabet, romanization is essential for computer users to input Russian text who either do not have a keyboard or word processor set up for inputting Cyrillic, or else are not capable of typing using a native Russian keyboard layout. In the latter case, they would type using a system of transliteration fitted for their keyboard layout, such as for English QWERTY keyboards, use an automated tool to convert the text into Cyrillic. There are a number of incompatible standards for the Romanization of Russian Cyrillic, with none of them having received much popularity and in reality transliteration is carried out without any uniform standards. Scientific transliteration known as the International Scholarly System, is a system, used in linguistics since the 19th century, it is formed the basis of the GOST and ISO systems.
OST 8483 was the first Soviet standard on romanization of Russian, introduced in 16 October 1935. Developed by the National Administration for Geodesy and Cartography at the USSR Council of Ministers, GOST 16876-71 has been in service for over 30 years and is the only romanization system that does not use diacritics. Replaced by GOST 7.79-2000. This standard is an equivalent of GOST 16876-71 and was adopted as an official standard of the COMECON. GOST 7.79-2000 System of Standards on Information and Publishing–Rules for Transliteration of the Cyrillic Characters Using the Latin Alphabet is an adoption of ISO 9:1995. It is the Commonwealth of Independent States. GOST 52535.1-2006 Identification cards. Machine readable travel documents. Part 1. Machine readable passports is an adoption of an ICAO standard for travel documents, it was used in Russian passports for a short period during 2010–2013. The standard was substituted in 2013 by GOST R ISO/IEC 7501-1-2013, which does not contain romanization, but directly refers to the ICAO romanization.
Names on street and road signs in the Soviet Union were romanized according to GOST 10807-78, amended by newer Russian GOST R 52290-2004, the romanizations in both the standards are identical. ISO/R 9, established in 1954 and updated in 1968, was the adoption of the scientific transliteration by the International Organization for Standardization, it covers seven other Slavic languages. ISO 9:1995 is the current transliteration standard from ISO, it is based on its predecessor ISO/R 9:1968. ISO 9:1995 is the first language-independent, univocal system of one character for one character equivalents that faithfully represents the original and allows for reverse transliteration for Cyrillic text in any contemporary language; the UNGEGN, a Working Group of the United Nations, in 1987 recommended a romanization system for geographical names, based on the 1983 version of GOST 16876-71. It may be found in some international cartographic products. American Library Association and Library of Congress romanization tables for Slavic alphabets are used in North American libraries and in the British Library since 1975.
The formal, unambiguous version of the system requires some diacritics and two-letter tie characters, which are omitted in practice. British Standard 2979:1958 is the main system of the Oxford University Press, a variation was used by the British Library to catalogue publications acquired up to 1975; the BGN/PCGN system is intuitive for Anglophones to read and pronounce. In many publications, a simplified form of the system is used to render English versions of Russian names converting ë to yo, simplifying -iy and -yy endings to -y, omitting apostrophes for ъ and ь, it can be rendered using only the basic letters and punctuation found on English-language keyboards: no diacritics or unusual letters are required, although the interpunct character may be used to avoid ambiguity. This particular standard is part of the BGN/PCGN romanization system, developed by the United States Board on Geographic Names and by the Permanent Committee on Geographical Names for British Official Use; the portion of the system pertaining to the Russian language was adopted by BGN in 1944 and by PCGN in 1947.
In Soviet international passports, transliteration was based on French rules, so all of the names were transliterated in a French-style system. In 1997, with the introduction of new Russian passports, a diacritic-free English-oriented system was established by the Ministry of Internal Affairs, but this system was abandoned in 2010. In 2006, GOST 52535.1-2006 was adopted, which defines technical requirements and standards for Russian international passports and introduces its own system of transliteration. In 2010, the Federal Migratory Service of Russia approved Order No. 26, stating that all personal names in the passports issued after 2010 must be transliterated using GOST 52535.1-2006. Because of some differences between the new system and the old one, citizens who wanted to retain the old version of a name's transliteration, in the old pre-2010 passport, might apply to the local migratory office before acquiring a new passport; the standard was abandoned in 2013. In 2013, Order No. 320 of the Federal Migratory Service of Russia came into force.
It states that all pe
Stavropol Krai
Stavropol Krai is a federal subject of Russia. It is geographically located in the North Caucasus region in Southern Russia, is administratively part of the North Caucasian Federal District. Stavropol Krai has a population of 2,786,281. Stavropol is the largest city and the capital of Stavropol Krai, Pyatigorsk is the administrative center of the North Caucasian Federal District. Stavropol Krai is bordered by Krasnodar Krai to the west, Rostov Oblast to the north-west, Kalmykia to the north, Dagestan to the east, Chechnya, North Ossetia-Alania, Kabardino-Balkaria and Karachay-Cherkessia to the south, it is one of the most multi-ethnic federal subjects in Russia, with thirty-three ethnic groups with more than 2,000 persons each. The western area of Stavropol Krai is considered part of the Kuban region, the traditional home of the Kuban Cossacks, with most of the krai's population living in the drainage basin of the Kuban River; the krai encompasses the central part of the Fore-Caucasus and most of the northern slopes of Caucasus Major.
It borders with Rostov Oblast, Krasnodar Krai, the Kalmykia, the Dagestan, the Chechnya, the North Ossetia–Alania, the Kabardino-Balkaria, the Karachay–Cherkessia. The krai was established as North Caucasus Krai on October 17, 1924. After undergoing numerous administrative changes, it was renamed Ordzhonikidze Krai, after Sergo Ordzhonikidze, in March 1937, Stavropol Krai on January 12, 1943. During the Soviet period, the high authority in the region was shared between three persons: The First Secretary of the Stavropol Krai CPSU Committee, the Chairman of the Krai Soviet, the Chairman of the Krai Executive Committee. In 1970-1978, Mikhail Gorbachev, a native of Stavropol Krai, occupied the position of the First Secretary of the Krai's Communist Party Committee, he left the region for Moscow in 1978, when he was promoted to a Secretary of the Central Committee of the CPSU, to become the Party's General Secretary and the nation's leader 7 years later. Since 1991, CPSU lost all the power, the head of the Krai Administration, the governor was appointed/elected alongside the elected regional parliament.
The Charter of Stavropol Krai is the fundamental law of the region. The Legislative Assembly of Stavropol Krai is the province's regional standing legislative body; the Legislative Assembly exercises its authority by passing laws and other legal acts and by supervising the implementation and observance of the laws and other legal acts passed by it. The highest executive body is the Krai Government, which includes territorial executive bodies such as district administrations and commissions that facilitate development and run the day to day matters of the province; the krai administration supports the activities of the Governor, the highest official and acts as guarantor of the observance of the krai Charter in accordance with the Constitution of Russia. Large companies in the region include Stavrolen, Concern Enorgomera, Nevinomiskiy Azot, Stavropolskiy Gres. According to the 2010 Census, the krai's population was 2,786,281; the population of the krai is concentrated in the drainage basins of the Kuban River and of the Kuma River, which used to be traditional Cossack land.
The Kuban Cossacks are now considered ethnic Russians though they are of Ukrainian origin and still form an important minority in their own right in this area. Other notable ethnic groups include Armeno-Tat and Pontic Greeks who have been coming to the area as refugees or "economic migrants" from as early as the fall of the Empire of Trebizond in northeastern Anatolia to the Ottomans in 1461, through the Russo-Turkish Wars of 1768-1774 and 1828-1829, following the Greek Genocide of the early 1900s; the 2010 Census counted thirty-three ethnic groups of more than 2,000 persons each, making this federal subject one of the most multiethnic in Russia. The inhabitants identified themselves as belonging to more than 140 different ethnic groups, as shown in the following table: Note: 26,855 people were registered from administrative databases, could not declare an ethnicity, it is estimated that the proportion of ethnicities in this group is the same as that of the declared group. Natural Increase: −2.1 per 1,000 Crude Birth Rate: 11.22 per 1,000 Crude Death Rate: 13.32 per 1,000 Net Immigration: +3.5 per 1,000 PGR: +0.14% per Year Births: 34,768 Deaths: 33,356 According to a 2012 survey 46.9% of the population of Stavropol Krai adheres to the Russian Orthodox Church, 7% are unaffiliated generic Christians, 5% are Muslims, 1% are either Orthodox Christian believers who do not belong to churches or members of non-Russian Orthodox bodies, 1% of the population adheres to Rodnovery or local native faiths.
In addition, 19% of the population declares to be "spiritual but not religious", 16% is atheist, 7.1% follows other religions or did not give an answer to the question. Stavropol Krai is administratively divided into ten cities/towns; the districts are further subdivided into nine towns of district subordinance, seven urban-type settlements, 284 rural okrugs and stanitsa okrugs. Irrigated agriculture is well developed in the region; as of the beginning of 2001, Stavropol Krai had 3,361 km of irrigation canals, of which 959 km were lined (i
Dacha
A dacha is a seasonal or year-round second home located in the exurbs of Russian-speaking and other post-Soviet countries. A cottage or shack serving as a family's main or only home, or an outbuilding, is not considered a dacha, although some dachas have been converted to year-round residences and vice versa. In some cases, owners occupy their dachas for part of the year and rent them to urban residents as summer retreats. People living in dachas are colloquially called dachniki; the Russian term is said to have no exact counterpart in English. Dachas are common in Russia, are widespread in most parts of the former Soviet Union and in some countries of the former Eastern Bloc. Surveys in 1993–1994 suggest about 25% of Russian families living in large cities had dachas. Most dachas are in colonies of dachas and garden plots near large cities; these clusters have existed since the Soviet era, consist of numerous small 600-square-metre, land plots. They were intended only as recreation getaways of city dwellers and for growing small gardens for food.
Dachniki use their dachas for fishing and other leisure activities. Growing garden crops – still seen as an important part of dacha life – remains popular. Dachas originated as small country estates given as a gift by the tsar, have been popular among the Russian upper- and middle-classes since. During the Soviet era, many dachas were state-owned, were given to the elite of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union; the government of the Russian Federation continues to own State dachas used by the president and other officials. They were popular in the Soviet Union, because people did not have the opportunity to buy land and build a house where they wanted, because they lacked other opportunities to spend their time and money; as regulations restricted the size and type of dacha buildings for ordinary people during the Soviet period, permitted features such as large attics or glazed verandas became widespread and oversized. In the period from the 1960s to 1985 legal limitations were strict: only single-story summer houses without permanent heating and with living areas less than 60 m2 were allowed as second housing.
In the 1980s planners loosened the rules, since 1990 all such limitations have been eliminated. The first dachas in Russia began to appear during the 17th century referring to small estates in the country that were given to loyal vassals by the tsar. In archaic Russian, the word dacha means something given, from the verb "дать" – "to give". During the Age of Enlightenment, Russian aristocracy used their dachas for social and cultural gatherings, which were accompanied by masquerade balls and fireworks displays; the coming of the Industrial Revolution to Russia brought about a rapid growth in the urban population, wealthy urban residents desired to escape the polluted cities, at least temporarily. By the end of the 19th century, the dacha became a favorite summer retreat for the upper and middle classes of Russian society. In the tsarist era, dachas were not used much for growing food. Anton Chekhov wrote a novelette entitled Dachniki, about newlywed city-dwellers living a'simple' summer life of walks in the countryside.
Following the Russian Revolution, most dachas were nationalised. Some were converted into vacation homes for factory workers, while others of better quality, were distributed among the prominent functionaries of the CPSU and the newly emerged cultural and scientific elite. All but a few dachas remained the property of the state and the right to use them was revoked when a dacha occupant was dismissed or fell out of favour with the rulers of the state. Building new dachas required permission from senior officials and was granted during the early years of the Soviet Union; the seniormost Soviet leaders all had their own dachas, Joseph Stalin's favourite was in Gagra, Abkhazia. New dachas started to be built in larger numbers during the 1930s, dacha colonies for artists, or soldiers, or various classes of party functionaries, started to form. There were legal size restrictions for dacha houses in the Soviet era, they had to be only one story tall. For that reason, they had a mansard roof, considered by authorities as just a large garret or attic, not a second story.
Ill-equipped and without indoor plumbing, dachas were a solution for millions of working-class families, to have their own form of summer retreat. Having a piece of land offered an opportunity for city dwellers to indulge themselves in growing their own fruits and vegetables. In the years before and after World War II, cultivation of garden crops on dacha plots was substantial, because of the failure of the centrally planned Soviet agricultural programme to supply enough fresh produce. Many dacha owners grew crops for market. Since growing garden crops has been of lesser importance, but continues to be widespread. Many Russian dacha owners still see gardening as a key value of dachnik culture. Keeping historical food shortages in mind, they take great pride in growing their own food rather than buying it at a store; the period after World War II saw moderate growth in dacha development. Since there was no actual law banning the construction of dachas, people began occupying unused plots of land near cities and towns, growing gard
Verkhovna Rada
The Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine simply Verkhovna Rada or just Rada, is the unicameral parliament of Ukraine. The Verkhovna Rada is composed of 450 deputies; the Verkhovna Rada meets in the Verkhovna Rada building in Ukraine's capital Kiev. The Verkhovna Rada was transformed out of the system of republican representative body known in the Soviet Union as Supreme Soviet, first established back in 1938 as a type of legislature of the Ukrainian SSR after the reorganization of the Central Executive Committee of the Ukrainian SSR; the 12th convocation of the Supreme Council of the Ukrainian SSR issued the Declaration of Independence of Ukraine, introduced elements of a market economy and political liberalization, changed the numeration of its sessions, proclaiming itself the first convocation of the "Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine". The current parliament is the eighth convocation; because of the War in Donbass and the unilateral annexation of Crimea by Russia, elections for the constituencies situated in Donbass and Crimea were not held in the 2014 Ukrainian parliamentary election.
In elections to the Verkhovna Rada, a mixed voting system is used. 50% of seats are distributed under party lists with a 5% election threshold and 50% through first-past-the-post in single-member constituencies. The method of 50/50 mixed elections was used in the 2012 elections; the name Rada means "council", "rede". The institution originated in the time of Kievan Rus', represented a council of boyars and of higher clergy. In the 17th and 18th centuries the Dnieper Cossacks used the term to refer to the meetings where major decisions were made; the Ukrainian People's Republic between 17 March 1917 and 29 April 1918 had a Central Rada. The West Ukrainian People's Republic and the Ukrainian government-in-exile each had a UNRada. Verkhovna, the feminine form of the adjective "верховний" meaning supreme, derives from the Ukrainian word "верх" meaning "top". Another name, used less is the Parliament of Ukraine. Central Rada in 1917–18 Ukrainian National Rada in 1918 Labour Congress of Ukraine in 1919 Rada of Republic in 1921 The Supreme Council of the Ukrainian SSR replaced the Central Executive Committee of the Ukrainian SSR, elected by All-Ukrainian Congress of Soviets and was a type of legislative authority of Soviet Ukraine according to the 1937 Constitution of the Ukrainian SSR.
The All-Ukrainian Congress of Soviets had been renamed the Supreme Council in 1927. The Congress of Soviets was initiated by the Central Executive Committee of Ukraine; the last chairman of the committee was Hryhoriy Petrovsky. The first elections to the Supreme Council of the Ukrainian SSR took place on 26 June 1938; the first session of the parliament took place in Kiev from 25 July through to 28 July 1938. The first Chairman of the council was Mykhailo Burmystenko who died during World War II. In 1938, a presidium of the council was created, led by Leonid Korniyets. During the war the presidium was evacuated to the city of Saratov in the Russian SFSR. On 29 June 1943, the presidium issued an order postponing elections for the new convocation for one year while extending the first convocation. On 8 January 1944, the Cabinet of Ministers of the Ukrainian SSR in agreement with the Communist Party decided to relocate the Presidium of the Supreme Council from Kharkiv to Kiev. New elections were scheduled for 9 February 1947 for the Council.
Until 24 August 1991 Verkhovna Rada kept the name Supreme Council of the Ukrainian SSR. The first free elections to the Verkhovna Rada and local councils of people's deputies were held on 4 March 1990. Although the Communist Party still remained in control, a "Democratic Bloc" was formed by numerous parties, including People's Movement of Ukraine, Helsinki Watch Committee of Ukraine, Party of Greens of Ukraine, many others; the twelfth convocation of the Supreme Council of the Ukrainian SSR issued the Declaration of State Sovereignty of Ukraine on 16 July 1990, declared Ukrainian independence on 24 August 1991, at 6 p.m. local time. At the time, the Chairman of the Verkhovna Rada was Leonid Kravchuk; the Act of Ukrainian Independence was overwhelmingly supported in a national referendum held on 1 December 1991. On 12 September 1991 the parliament adopted the law "On Legal Succession of Ukraine". Thus, the VR became the Supreme Council of Ukraine; the Constitution of Ukraine was adopted by the thirteenth convocation of the Verkhovna Rada on 28 June 1996, at 9 a.m. local time.
The parliament's fourteenth convocation changed the numbering of the convocations proclaiming itself the third convocation of the Verkhovna Rada. After the Orange Revolution, constitutional amendments were adopted in December 2004, by the fourth convocation of the Verkhovna Rada. On 1 October 2010 the Constitutional Court of Ukraine overturned the 2004 Amendments, considering them unconstitutional. On 21 February 2014, parliament reinstated the December 2004 amendments to the constitution. In 2017 and 2018 the website of the Verkovna Rada was the most popular among all websites of the parliaments of UN member states; the Verkhovna Rada meets in a neo-c
