1.
Grand Duchy of Lithuania
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The Grand Duchy of Lithuania was a European state from the 13th century until 1795. The state was founded by the Lithuanians, one of the polytheistic Baltic tribes from Aukštaitija, the Grand Duchy later expanded to include large portions of the former Kievan Rus and other Slavic lands, including territory of present-day Belarus, parts of Ukraine, Poland and Russia. At its greatest extent in the 15th century, it was the largest state in Europe and it was a multi-ethnic and multi-confessional state with great diversity in languages, religion, and cultural heritage. Consolidation of the Lithuanian lands began in the late 12th century, Mindaugas, the first ruler of the Grand Duchy, was crowned as Catholic King of Lithuania in 1253. The pagan state was targeted in the crusade by the Teutonic Knights. The multi-ethnic and multi-confessional state emerged only at the reign of Gediminas. The reign of Vytautas the Great marked both the greatest territorial expansion of the Grand Duchy and the defeat of the Teutonic Knights in the Battle of Grunwald in 1410 and it also marked the rise of the Lithuanian nobility. After Vytautass death, Lithuanias relationship with the Kingdom of Poland greatly deteriorated, Lithuanian noblemen, including the Radvila family, attempted to break the personal union with Poland. However, the unsuccessful Muscovite–Lithuanian Wars with the Grand Duchy of Moscow forced the union to remain intact, eventually, the Union of Lublin of 1569 created a new state, the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth. In this federation, the Grand Duchy of Lithuania maintained its political distinctiveness and had separate government, laws, army, shortly after, the unitary character of the state was confirmed by adopting the Reciprocal Guarantee of Two Nations. The newly reformed Commonwealth was invaded by Russia in 1792 and partitioned between the neighbours, with a truncated state remaining only nominally independent, after the Kościuszko Uprising, the territory was partitioned among the Russian Empire, the Kingdom of Prussia, and Austria in 1795. The Statutes of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania name the name of the state as Grand Duchy of Lithuania, Ruthenia and Samogitia. The title of Grand Duchy was consistently applied to Lithuania from the 14th century onward, in the 12th century, Slavic chronicles refer to Lithuania as one of the areas attacked by the Rus. Pagan Lithuanians initially paid tribute to Polotsk, but they grew in strength. The sudden spark of military raids marked consolidation of the Lithuanian lands in Aukštaitija, the Livonian Order and Teutonic Knights, crusading military orders, were established in Riga in 1202 and in Prussia in 1226. The Christian orders posed a significant threat to pagan Baltic tribes, the peace treaty with Galicia–Volhynia of 1219 provides evidence of cooperation between Lithuanians and Samogitians. This treaty lists 21 Lithuanian dukes, including five senior Lithuanian dukes from Aukštaitija, although they had battled in the past, the Lithuanians and the Žemaičiai now faced a common enemy. Likely Živinbudas had the most authority and at least several dukes were from the same families, the formal acknowledgment of common interests and the establishment of a hierarchy among the signatories of the treaty foreshadowed the emergence of the state
2.
Public university
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A public university is a university that is predominantly funded by public means through a national or subnational government, as opposed to private universities. Whether a national university is considered public varies from one country to another, in Egypt, Al-Azhar University opened in 975 AD as the second oldest university in the world. In Nigeria Public Universities can be established by both the Federal Government and by State Governments, students are enrolled after completing the 8-4-4 system of education and attaining a mark of C+ or above. They are also eligible for a low interest loan from the Higher Education Loan Board and they are expected to pay back the loan after completing higher education. South Africa has 23 public tertiary institutions, either categorised as a traditional university or a comprehensive university. Almost entire national universities in Brunei are public universities and these are major universities in Brunei, University of Brunei Darussalam Brunei Technological University Sultan Sharif Ali Islamic University There are 40 public universities in Bangladesh. The University Grant Commission is the body for all the public universities in Bangladesh. The universities do not deal directly with the government, but with the University Grants Commission, recently many private universities are established under the Private University Act of 1992. In mainland China, nearly all universities and research institutions are public and currently, the public universities are usually run by the provincial governments, there are also circumstances where the municipal governments administer the universities. Some public universities are national, which are administered by the central government. Private undergraduate colleges do exist, which are vocational colleges sponsored by private enterprises. The majority of universities are not entitled to award bachelors degrees. Public universities usually enjoy higher reputation domestically, eight institutions are funded by the University Grants Committee. The Academy for Performing Arts also receives funding from the government, the Open University of Hong Kong is also a public university, but it is largely self-financed. The Shue Yan University is the private institution with the status of a university. There are public and private institutes in Indonesia. The government provide public universities, institutes, high schools and academies in each province, the private educational institution usually provided by religious organizations, public organizations, and some big companies. In India, most universities and nearly all research institutions are public, There are some private undergraduate colleges, mostly engineering schools, but a majority of these are affiliated to public universities
3.
Rector (academia)
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A rector is a term used in non-English-speaking countries for a university chancellor. In the sphere of academia, it is the highest academic official of universities and in certain other institutions of higher education. The term and office of a rector are called a rectorate, the title is used widely in universities in Europe. And is very common in Latin American countries and it is also used in Brunei, Turkey, Russia, Pakistan, the Philippines, Indonesia, Israel and the Middle East. In some universities, the title is phrased in an even loftier manner and this term is generally not used in English-speaking countries. In England and elsewhere in Great Britain, the head of a university is referred to as a chancellor. This pattern has been followed in the Commonwealth, the United States, in Scotland, many universities are headed by a chancellor, with the Lord Rector designated as an elected representative of students at the head of the university court. The head of a university in Germany is called a president, rector magnificus or rectrix magnifica, in Dutch universities, the rector magnificus is the most publicly prominent member of the board, responsible for the scientific agenda of the university. In the Netherlands, the rector is, however, not the chair of the university board, the chair has, in practice, the most influence over the management of the University. In some countries, including Germany, the position of teacher in secondary schools is also designated as rector. In the Netherlands, the rector and conrector are used commonly for high school directors. This is also the case in some Maltese secondary schools, in the Scandinavian countries, the head of a university or a gymnasium is called a rektor. In Sweden and Norway, this term is used for the heads of primary schools. For example, in Portugal, the rector of the University of Coimbra, the heads of Czech universities are called the rektor. The rector acts in the name of the university and decides the universitys affairs unless prohibited by law, the rector is nominated by the University Academic Senate and appointed by the President of the Czech Republic. The nomination must be agreed by a majority of all senators. The vote to elect or repeal a rector is secret, the term of office is four years and a person may hold it for at most two consecutive terms. The rector appoints vice-rectors, who act as deputies to the extent the Rector determines, Rectors salaries are determined directly by the Minister of Education
4.
Postgraduate education
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In North America, this level is generally referred to as graduate school. The organization and structure of education varies in different countries. This article outlines the types of courses and of teaching and examination methods. There are two types of degrees studied for at the postgraduate level, academic and vocational degrees. The term degree in this means the moving from one stage or level to another. University studies took six years for a degree and up to twelve additional years for a masters degree or doctorate. The first six years taught the faculty of the arts, which was the study of the seven liberal arts, arithmetic, geometry, astronomy, music theory, grammar, logic, the main emphasis was on logic. Once a Bachelor of Arts degree had been obtained, the student could choose one of three faculties—law, medicine, or theology—in which to pursue masters or doctors degrees. Because theology was thought to be the highest of the subjects, the main significance of the higher, postgraduate degrees was that they licensed the holder to teach. In most countries, the hierarchy of postgraduate degrees is as follows, in Scottish Universities, the Master of Philosophy degree tends to be by research or higher masters degree and the Master of Letters degree tends to be the taught or lower masters degree. In many fields such as social work, or library science in North America. Professional degrees such as the Master of Architecture degree can last to three and a years to satisfy professional requirement to be an architect. Professional degrees such as the Master of Business Administration degree can last up to two years to satisfy the requirement to become a business leader. These are often divided into academic and professional doctorates. An academic doctorate can be awarded as a Doctor of Philosophy degree or as a Doctor of Science degree, a doctorate is the terminal degree in most fields. In the United States, there is distinction between a Doctor of Philosophy degree and a Doctor of Science degree. In the second half of the 19th century, however, US universities began to follow the European model by awarding doctorates, in the UK, an equivalent formation to doctorate is the NVQ5 or QCF8. Most universities award degrees, usually at the postgraduate level
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Doctorate
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There are a variety of doctoral degrees, with the most common being the Doctor of Philosophy, which is awarded in many different fields, ranging from the humanities to the scientific disciplines. The term doctor derives from the Latin docere meaning to teach, the doctorate appeared in medieval Europe as a license to teach Latin at a university. Its roots can be traced to the church in which the term doctor referred to the Apostles, church fathers. The right to grant a licentia docendi was originally reserved to the Catholic church, the Third Council of the Lateran of 1179 guaranteed the access—at that time largely free of charge—of all able applicants. This right remained a bone of contention between the authorities and universities that were slowly distancing themselves from the Church. The right was granted by the pope to the University of Paris in 1213 where it became a universal license to teach, according to Keith Allan Noble, the first doctoral degree was awarded in medieval Paris around 1150. The so-called professional, vocational, or technical curriculum of the Middle Ages included only theology, law, the doctorate of philosophy developed in Germany in the 17th century. The term philosophy does not refer solely to the field or academic discipline of philosophy, but is used in a sense in accordance with its original Greek meaning. In most of Europe, all fields were traditionally known as philosophy, the doctorate of philosophy adheres to this historic convention, even though the degrees are not always for the study of philosophy. D. University doctoral training was a form of apprenticeship to a guild, the traditional term of study before new teachers were admitted to the guild of Masters of Arts was seven years, matching the apprenticeship term for other occupations. Originally the terms master and doctor were synonymous, but over time the doctorate came to be regarded as a higher qualification than the masters degree, University degrees, including doctorates, were originally restricted to men. The use and meaning of the doctorate has changed over time, for instance, until the early 20th century few academic staff or professors in English-speaking universities held doctorates, except for very senior scholars and those in holy orders. After that time the German practice of requiring lecturers to have completed a research doctorate spread, universities shift to research-oriented education increased the doctorates importance. Today, a doctorate or its equivalent is generally a prerequisite for an academic career. Professional doctorates developed in the United States from the 19th century onward, the first professional doctorate to be offered in the United States was the M. D. The MD became the standard first degree in medicine during the 19th century, the MD, as the standard qualifying degree in medicine, gave that profession the ability to set and raise standards for entry into professional practice. The modern research degree, in the shape of the German-style Ph. D. was first awarded in the U. S. in 1861, in the UK, research doctorates initially took the form of higher doctorates, introduced from 1882 onwards. The PhD spread to the UK from the US via Canada, following the MD, the next professional doctorate, the Juris Doctor, was established by Chicago University in 1902
6.
Residency (medicine)
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Residency is a stage of graduate medical training. A resident or house officer is a physician who practices medicine usually in a hospital or clinic under the direct or indirect supervision of an attending physician, successful completion of a residency program is a requirement to obtaining an unrestricted license to practice medicine in many jurisdictions. Residency training may be followed by fellowship or sub-specialty training, a resident physician is more commonly referred to as a resident, senior house officer, or alternatively as a senior resident medical officer or house officer. Residents have graduated from a medical school and hold a medical degree. Residents are, collectively, the staff of a hospital. This term comes from the fact that resident physicians traditionally spend the majority of their training in house, duration of residencies can range from three years to seven years, depending upon the program and specialty. A year in residency begins between late June and early July depending on the program, and ends one calendar year later. Depending on the number of years a specialty requires, the term junior resident may refer to residents that have not completed half their residency, Senior residents are residents in their final year of residency. Some residency programs refer to residents in their year as chief residents. Alternatively, a resident may describe a resident who has been selected to extend his or her residency by one year and organize the activities. If a physician finishes a residency and decides to further his or her education in a fellowship, post-residency physicians are referred to as attending physicians, or consultants. However, the above applies only in educational institutes in which the period of training is specified in advance. In privately owned, non-training hospitals, in countries, the above terminology may reflect the level of responsibility held by a physician rather than their level of education. The first formal residency programs were established by Sir William Osler, residencies elsewhere then became formalized and institutionalized for the principal specialties in the early 20th century. But even mid-century, residency was not seen as necessary for general practice, residencies are traditionally hospital-based, and in the middle of the twentieth century, residents would often live in hospital-supplied housing. Call was sometimes as frequent as every second or third night for up to three years, pay was minimal beyond room, board, and laundry services. It was assumed that most young men and women training as physicians had few obligations outside of training at that stage of their careers. The first year of practical patient-care-oriented training after school has long been termed internship
7.
Vilnius
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Vilnius is the capital of Lithuania and its largest city, with a population of 542,664 as of 2015. Vilnius is located in the southeast part of Lithuania and is the second largest city in the Baltic states, Vilnius is the seat of the main government institutions of Lithuania as well as of the Vilnius District Municipality. Vilnius is classified as a Gamma global city according to GaWC studies and its Jewish influence until the 20th century has led to it being described as the Jerusalem of Lithuania and Napoleon named it the Jerusalem of the North as he was passing through in 1812. In 2009, Vilnius was the European Capital of Culture, together with the Austrian city of Linz, the name of the city originates from the Vilnia River. The city has also known by many derivate spellings in various languages throughout its history. The most notable names for the city include, Polish, Wilno, Belarusian, Вiльня, German, Wilna, Latvian, Viļņa, Russian, Вильнюс, Yiddish, ווילנע , Czech. A Russian name from the time of the Russian Empire was Вильна/Вильно, the name Vilna is still used in Finnish, Portuguese, Spanish, and Hebrew. Wilna is still used in German, along with Vilnius, the neighborhoods of Vilnius also have names in other languages, which represent the languages spoken by various ethnic groups in the area. Historian Romas Batūra identifies the city with Voruta, one of the castles of Mindaugas, during the reign of Vytenis a city started to emerge from a trading settlement and the first Franciscan Catholic church was built. These letters contain the first unambiguous reference to Vilnius as the capital, According to legend, Gediminas dreamt of an iron wolf howling on a hilltop and consulted a pagan priest for its interpretation. He was told, What is destined for the ruler and the State of Lithuania, is thus, the Iron Wolf represents a castle and a city which will be established by you on this site. This city will be the capital of the Lithuanian lands and the dwelling of their rulers, the location offered practical advantages, it lay within the Lithuanian heartland at the confluence of two navigable rivers, surrounded by forests and wetlands that were difficult to penetrate. The duchy had been subject to intrusions by the Teutonic Knights, Vilnius was the flourishing capital of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, the residence of the Grand Duke. Gediminas expanded the Grand Duchy through warfare along with strategic alliances and marriages, at its height it covered the territory of modern-day Lithuania, Belarus, Ukraine, Transnistria, and portions of modern-day Poland and Russia. His grandchildren Vytautas the Great and Jogaila, however, fought civil wars, during the Lithuanian Civil War of 1389–1392, Vytautas besieged and razed the city in an attempt to wrest control from Jogaila. The two later settled their differences, after a series of treaties culminating in the 1569 Union of Lublin, the rulers of this federation held either or both of two titles, Grand Duke of Lithuania or King of Poland. In 1387, Jogaila acting as a Grand Duke of Lithuania and King of Poland Władysław II Jagiełło, the city underwent a period of expansion. The Vilnius city walls were built for protection between 1503 and 1522, comprising nine city gates and three towers, and Sigismund August moved his court there in 1544
8.
Lithuania
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Lithuania, officially the Republic of Lithuania, is a country in Northern Europe. One of the three Baltic states, it is situated along the shore of the Baltic Sea, to the east of Sweden. It is bordered by Latvia to the north, Belarus to the east and south, Poland to the south, Lithuania has an estimated population of 2.9 million people as of 2015, and its capital and largest city is Vilnius. The official language, Lithuanian, along with Latvian, is one of two living languages in the Baltic branch of the Indo-European language family. For centuries, the shores of the Baltic Sea were inhabited by various Baltic tribes. In the 1230s, the Lithuanian lands were united by Mindaugas, the King of Lithuania, and the first unified Lithuanian state, with the Lublin Union of 1569, Lithuania and Poland formed a voluntary two-state union, the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth. The Commonwealth lasted more than two centuries, until neighboring countries systematically dismantled it from 1772–95, with the Russian Empire annexing most of Lithuanias territory. As World War I neared its end, Lithuanias Act of Independence was signed on 16 February 1918, in the midst of the Second World War, Lithuania was first occupied by the Soviet Union and then by Nazi Germany. As World War II neared its end and the Germans retreated, Lithuania is a member of the European Union, the Council of Europe, a full member of the Eurozone, Schengen Agreement and NATO. It is also a member of the Nordic Investment Bank, the United Nations Human Development Index lists Lithuania as a very high human development country. Lithuania has been among the fastest growing economies in the European Union and is ranked 21st in the world in the Ease of Doing Business Index, the first people settled in the territory of Lithuania after the last glacial period in the 10th millennium BC. Over a millennium, the Indo-Europeans, who arrived in the 3rd – 2nd millennium BC, mixed with the local population, the first written mention of Lithuania is found in a medieval German manuscript, the Annals of Quedlinburg, in an entry dated 9 March 1009. Initially inhabited by fragmented Baltic tribes, in the 1230s the Lithuanian lands were united by Mindaugas, after his assassination in 1263, pagan Lithuania was a target of the Christian crusades of the Teutonic Knights and the Livonian Order. Despite the devastating century-long struggle with the Orders, the Grand Duchy of Lithuania expanded rapidly, by the end of the 14th century, Lithuania was one of the largest countries in Europe and included present-day Belarus, Ukraine, and parts of Poland and Russia. The geopolitical situation between the west and the east determined the multicultural and multi-confessional character of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, the ruling elite practised religious tolerance and Chancery Slavonic language was used as an auxiliary language to the Latin for official documents. In 1385, the Grand Duke Jogaila accepted Polands offer to become its king, Jogaila embarked on gradual Christianization of Lithuania and established a personal union between Poland and Lithuania. It implied that Lithuania, the fiercely independent land, was one of the last pagan areas of Europe to adopt Christianity, after two civil wars, Vytautas the Great became the Grand Duke of Lithuania in 1392. During his reign, Lithuania reached the peak of its expansion, centralization of the state began
9.
Geographic coordinate system
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A geographic coordinate system is a coordinate system used in geography that enables every location on Earth to be specified by a set of numbers, letters or symbols. The coordinates are chosen such that one of the numbers represents a vertical position. A common choice of coordinates is latitude, longitude and elevation, to specify a location on a two-dimensional map requires a map projection. The invention of a coordinate system is generally credited to Eratosthenes of Cyrene. Ptolemy credited him with the adoption of longitude and latitude. Ptolemys 2nd-century Geography used the prime meridian but measured latitude from the equator instead. Mathematical cartography resumed in Europe following Maximus Planudes recovery of Ptolemys text a little before 1300, in 1884, the United States hosted the International Meridian Conference, attended by representatives from twenty-five nations. Twenty-two of them agreed to adopt the longitude of the Royal Observatory in Greenwich, the Dominican Republic voted against the motion, while France and Brazil abstained. France adopted Greenwich Mean Time in place of local determinations by the Paris Observatory in 1911, the latitude of a point on Earths surface is the angle between the equatorial plane and the straight line that passes through that point and through the center of the Earth. Lines joining points of the same latitude trace circles on the surface of Earth called parallels, as they are parallel to the equator, the north pole is 90° N, the south pole is 90° S. The 0° parallel of latitude is designated the equator, the plane of all geographic coordinate systems. The equator divides the globe into Northern and Southern Hemispheres, the longitude of a point on Earths surface is the angle east or west of a reference meridian to another meridian that passes through that point. All meridians are halves of great ellipses, which converge at the north and south poles, the prime meridian determines the proper Eastern and Western Hemispheres, although maps often divide these hemispheres further west in order to keep the Old World on a single side. The antipodal meridian of Greenwich is both 180°W and 180°E, the combination of these two components specifies the position of any location on the surface of Earth, without consideration of altitude or depth. The grid formed by lines of latitude and longitude is known as a graticule, the origin/zero point of this system is located in the Gulf of Guinea about 625 km south of Tema, Ghana. To completely specify a location of a feature on, in, or above Earth. Earth is not a sphere, but a shape approximating a biaxial ellipsoid. It is nearly spherical, but has an equatorial bulge making the radius at the equator about 0. 3% larger than the radius measured through the poles, the shorter axis approximately coincides with the axis of rotation
10.
Maroon
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Maroon is a dark brownish red color which takes its name from the French word marron, or chestnut. The Oxford English Dictionary describes it as a crimson or claret color. In the RGB model used to create colors on computer screens and televisions, Maroon is derived from French marron, itself from the Italian marrone, from the medieval Greek maraon. The first recorded use of maroon as a name in English was in 1789. Displayed on the right is the tone of maroon that was designated as maroon in Crayola crayons beginning in 1949. It is a medium shade of maroon halfway between brown and rose. The color halfway between brown and rose is crimson, so color is also a tone of crimson. Displayed on the right is the color maroon, i. e. maroon as defined in the X11 color names. See the chart Color name clashes in the X11 color names article to see those colors which are different in HTML/CSS, displayed on the right is the web color dark red. Books In The Silence of the Lambs by Thomas Harris, the serial killer Dr Hannibal Lecter has eyes that are described as being maroon brown, Maroon is frequently associated with Ron Weasley, a character in J. K. Rowlings Harry Potter series, though Ron tells Harry that he dislikes the color, business Maroon is the main color of the Hollister Co. logo. Maroon was the livery applied to coaching stock of the London, Midland and Scottish Railway, Maroon is the signature color of the Japanese private rail company, Hankyu Railway, decided by a vote of women customers in 1923. In the 1990s, Hankyu planned an alternative color as it was developing new vehicles and that plan was called off following opposition by local residents. Government Maroon is the color associated with the historic County of Midlothian. While the declared shade of maroon is RGB 115/24/44, Queenslanders display the spirit of the state by wearing all shades of maroon at sporting, Maroon is the official color of the Socialist Party of America. Military The distinctive maroon beret has been worn by airborne forces around the world since 1942, Maroon 5 is a pop rock band. Religion Vajrayana Buddhist monks, such as the Dalai Lama, wear maroon robes, Maroon, along with golden yellow, is worn in the Philippines by Catholic devotees of the Black Nazarene, especially during its procession on 9 January. School colors Many universities, colleges, high schools and other institutions have maroon as one of their school colors
11.
Lithuanian language
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Lithuanian is the official state language of Lithuania and is recognized as one of the official languages of the European Union. There are about 2.9 million native Lithuanian speakers in Lithuania, Lithuanian is a Baltic language, related to Latvian. It is written in a Latin alphabet, Lithuanian is often said to be the most conservative living Indo-European language, retaining many features of Proto-Indo-European now lost in other Indo-European languages. Anyone wishing to hear how Indo-Europeans spoke should come and listen to a Lithuanian peasant, among Indo-European languages, Lithuanian is extraordinarily conservative, retaining many archaic features otherwise found only in ancient languages such as Sanskrit or Ancient Greek. For this reason, it is one of the most important sources in the reconstruction of the Proto-Indo-European language despite its late attestation, the Proto-Balto-Slavic languages branched off directly from Proto-Indo-European, then branched into Proto-Baltic and Proto-Slavic. Proto-Baltic branched off into Proto-West Baltic and Proto-East Baltic, according to some glottochronological speculations, the Eastern Baltic languages split from the Western Baltic ones between AD400 and AD600. The Greek geographer Ptolemy had already written of two Baltic tribe/nations by name, the Galindai and Sudinoi in the 2nd century AD, the differentiation between Lithuanian and Latvian started after AD800, for a long period, they could be considered dialects of a single language. At a minimum, transitional dialects existed until the 14th or 15th century, also, the 13th- and 14th-century occupation of the western part of the Daugava basin by the German Sword Brethren had a significant influence on the languages independent development. The earliest surviving written Lithuanian text is a translation dating from about 1503–1525 of the Lords Prayer, the Hail Mary, printed books existed after 1547, but the level of literacy among Lithuanians was low through the 18th century, and books were not commonly available. Brought into the country by book smugglers despite the threat of prison sentences. Jonas Jablonskis made significant contributions to the formation of the standard Lithuanian language and his proposal for Standard Lithuanian was based on his native Western Aukštaitijan dialect with some features of the eastern Prussian Lithuanians dialect spoken in Lithuania Minor. These dialects had preserved archaic phonetics mostly intact due to the influence of the neighbouring Old Prussian language, Lithuanian has been the official language of Lithuania since 1918. During the Soviet era, it was used in official discourse along with Russian, Lithuanian is one of two living Baltic languages, along with Latvian. An earlier Baltic language, Old Prussian, was extinct by the 18th century, such an opinion was first represented by the likes of August Schleicher, and to a certain extent, Antoine Meillet. Endzelīns thought that the similarity between Baltic and Slavic was explicable through language contact while Schleicher, Meillet and others argued for a kinship between the two families. An attempt to reconcile the opposing stances was made by Jan Michał Rozwadowski and he proposed that the two language groups were indeed a unity after the division of Indo-European, but also suggested that after the two had divided into separate entities, they had posterior contact. The genetic kinship view is augmented by the fact that Proto-Balto-Slavic is easily reconstructible with important proofs in historic prosody, vyacheslav Ivanov and Vladimir Toporov believed in the unity of Balto-Slavic, but not in the unity of Baltic. In the 1960s, they proposed a new division, that into East-Baltic, West-Baltic, the Ivanov–Toporov theory is gaining ground among students of comparative-historic grammar of Indo-European language, and seems to be replacing the previous two stances in most PIE textbooks
12.
Baltic states
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The Baltic states cooperate on a regional level in several intergovernmental organizations. While the native populations of Latvia and Lithuania are known as Baltic people, another Baltic identity, Baltic German, began to develop during the Middle Ages after the Livonian Crusade. After the collapse of Livonia, parts of Latvia and Estonia came under influence of the Commonwealth and this lasted until the 18th century, when the lands of all three modern countries were gradually absorbed into the Russian Empire. The Baltic states gained independence after World War I, but were occupied by the Soviet Union during World War II, all three countries are members of the European Union, NATO and the Eurozone. They are classified as high-income economies by the World Bank and maintain high Human Development Index, Estonia and Latvia are also members of the OECD, while Lithuania is a prospective candidate. The term Baltic stems from the name of the Baltic Sea – a hydronym dating back to the 11th century, although there are several theories about its origin, most ultimately trace it to Indo-European root *bhel meaning white, fair. This meaning is retained in modern Baltic languages, where baltas, however the modern names of the region and the sea, that originate from this root, were not used in either of the two languages prior to the 19th century. In English Ost is East, and in fact, the Baltic Sea mostly lies to the east of Germany, Denmark, Norway, in the 13th century pagan Baltic and Finnic peoples in the region became a target of the Northern Crusades. In the aftermath of the Livonian crusade, a crusader state officially named Terra Mariana and it was divided into four autonomous bishoprics and lands of the Livonian Brothers of the Sword. After the Brothers of the Sword suffered defeat at the Battle of Saule, Northern Estonia initially became a Danish dominion, but it was purchased by the Teutonic Order in the mid-14th century. The Lithuanians were also targeted by the crusaders, however they were able to resist and it allied with the Kingdom of Poland. After the Union of Krewo in 1385 created a union between the two countries, they became ever more closely integrated and finally merged into the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth in 1569. After victory in the Polish–Lithuanian–Teutonic War, the Polish–Lithuanian union became a political power in the region. In 1558 Livonia was attacked by the Tsardom of Russia and the Livonian war broke out, the rulers of different regions within Livonia sought to ally with foreign powers, which resulted in Polish–Lithuanian, Swedish and Danish involvement. In the aftermath of conflicts of the 17th century, much of the Duchy of Livonia. These newly acquired Swedish territories, as well as Ingria and Kexholm, at the beginning of the 18th century the Swedish Empire was attacked by a coalition of several European powers in the Great Northern War. Among these powers was Russia, seeking to restore its access to the Baltic Sea, during the course of the war it conquered all of the Swedish provinces on the Eastern Baltic coast. This acquisition was legalized by the Treaty of Nystad in which the Baltic Dominions were ceded to Russia, under Russian rule these territories came to be known as Ostsee Governorates
13.
Northern Europe
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Northern Europe is the northern part or region of Europe. However, narrower definitions may also be used based on geographical factors, such as climate. Greenland, geographically a part of North America, is politically a part of the Kingdom of Denmark, while Northern Europe overlaps with most of Northwestern Europe, north-Central Europe, and Northeastern Europe, it does not border Southern Europe. Countries which are central-western, central-central, or central-eastern are generally considered part of neither Northern Europe or Southern Europe. Historically, when Europe was dominated by the Mediterranean region, everything not near this sea was termed Northern Europe, including southern Germany, all of the Low Countries and this meaning is still used today in some contexts, such as in discussions of the Northern Renaissance. In medieval times, the term Thule was used to mean a place in the extreme northern reaches of the continent. The region has a south west extreme of around 50 degrees north, the entire regions climate is mildly affected by the Gulf Stream. From the west climates vary from maritime and maritime subarctic climates, in the north and central climates are generally subarctic or Arctic and to the east climates are mostly subarctic and temperate/continental. With the exception of the United Kingdom and Ireland, Northern European countries are known for harsh winters with temperatures reaching as low as minus 50 degrees Celsius in some parts. Countries in Northern Europe have large, developed economies and some of the highest standards of living in the world and they often score highly on surveys measuring quality of life, such as the Human Development Index
14.
University
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A university is an institution of higher education and research which grants academic degrees in various academic disciplines. Universities typically provide undergraduate education and postgraduate education, the word university is derived from the Latin universitas magistrorum et scholarium, which roughly means community of teachers and scholars. Universities were created in Italy and evolved from Cathedral schools for the clergy during the High Middle Ages, the original Latin word universitas refers in general to a number of persons associated into one body, a society, company, community, guild, corporation, etc. Like other guilds, they were self-regulating and determined the qualifications of their members, an important idea in the definition of a university is the notion of academic freedom. The first documentary evidence of this comes from early in the life of the first university, the University of Bologna adopted an academic charter, the Constitutio Habita, in 1158 or 1155, which guaranteed the right of a traveling scholar to unhindered passage in the interests of education. Today this is claimed as the origin of academic freedom and this is now widely recognised internationally - on 18 September 1988,430 university rectors signed the Magna Charta Universitatum, marking the 900th anniversary of Bolognas foundation. The number of universities signing the Magna Charta Universitatum continues to grow, the university is generally regarded as a formal institution that has its origin in the Medieval Christian setting. The earliest universities were developed under the aegis of the Latin Church by papal bull as studia generalia and it is possible, however, that the development of cathedral schools into universities was quite rare, with the University of Paris being an exception. Later they were founded by Kings or municipal administrations. In the early period, most new universities were founded from pre-existing schools. Many historians state that universities and cathedral schools were a continuation of the interest in learning promoted by monasteries, the first universities in Europe with a form of corporate/guild structure were the University of Bologna, the University of Paris, and the University of Oxford. The students had all the power … and dominated the masters, princes and leaders of city governments perceived the potential benefits of having a scholarly expertise develop with the ability to address difficult problems and achieve desired ends. The emergence of humanism was essential to understanding of the possible utility of universities as well as the revival of interest in knowledge gained from ancient Greek texts. The rediscovery of Aristotles works–more than 3000 pages of it would eventually be translated–fuelled a spirit of inquiry into natural processes that had begun to emerge in the 12th century. Some scholars believe that these represented one of the most important document discoveries in Western intellectual history. Richard Dales, for instance, calls the discovery of Aristotles works a turning point in the history of Western thought and this became the primary mission of lecturers, and the expectation of students. The university culture developed differently in northern Europe than it did in the south, Latin was the language of the university, used for all texts, lectures, disputations and examinations. Professors lectured on the books of Aristotle for logic, natural philosophy, and metaphysics, while Hippocrates, Galen, outside of these commonalities, great differences separated north and south, primarily in subject matter
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Society of Jesus
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The Society of Jesus Latin, Societas Iesu, S. J. SJ or SI) is a religious congregation of the Catholic Church which originated in Spain. The society is engaged in evangelization and apostolic ministry in 112 nations on six continents, Jesuits work in education, intellectual research, and cultural pursuits. Jesuits also give retreats, minister in hospitals and parishes, and promote social justice, Ignatius of Loyola founded the society after being wounded in battle and experiencing a religious conversion. He composed the Spiritual Exercises to help others follow the teachings of Jesus Christ, ignatiuss plan of the orders organization was approved by Pope Paul III in 1540 by a bull containing the Formula of the Institute. Ignatius was a nobleman who had a background, and the members of the society were supposed to accept orders anywhere in the world. The Society participated in the Counter-Reformation and, later, in the implementation of the Second Vatican Council, the Society of Jesus is consecrated under the patronage of Madonna Della Strada, a title of the Blessed Virgin Mary, and it is led by a Superior General. The Society of Jesus on October 3,2016 announced that Superior General Adolfo Nicolás resignation was officially accepted, on October 14, the 36th General Congregation of the Society of Jesus elected Father Arturo Sosa as its thirty-first Superior General. The headquarters of the society, its General Curia, is in Rome, the historic curia of St. Ignatius is now part of the Collegio del Gesù attached to the Church of the Gesù, the Jesuit Mother Church. In 2013, Jorge Mario Bergoglio became the first Jesuit Pope, the Jesuits today form the largest single religious order of priests and brothers in the Catholic Church. As of 1 January 2015, Jesuits numbered 16,740,11,986 clerics regular,2,733 scholastics,1,268 brothers and 753 novices. In 2012, Mark Raper S. J. wrote, Our numbers have been in decline for the last 40 years—from over 30,000 in the 1960s to fewer than 18,000 today. The steep declines in Europe and North America and consistent decline in Latin America have not been offset by the significant increase in South Asia, the Society is divided into 83 Provinces with six Independent Regions and ten Dependent Regions. On 1 January 2007, members served in 112 nations on six continents with the largest number in India and their average age was 57.3 years,63.4 years for priests,29.9 years for scholastics, and 65.5 years for brothers. The current Superior General of the Jesuits is Arturo Sosa, the Society is characterized by its ministries in the fields of missionary work, human rights, social justice and, most notably, higher education. It operates colleges and universities in countries around the world and is particularly active in the Philippines. In the United States it maintains 28 colleges and universities and 58 high schools and he ensured that his formula was contained in two papal bulls signed by Pope Paul III in 1540 and by Pope Julius III in 1550. The formula expressed the nature, spirituality, community life and apostolate of the new religious order, the meeting is now commemorated in the Martyrium of Saint Denis, Montmartre
16.
Grand Duke of Lithuania
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The following is a list of rulers over Lithuania—grand dukes, kings, and presidents—the heads of authority over historical Lithuanian territory. The timeline includes Lithuania as an entity or legitimately part of a greater sovereign entity as well as Lithuania under control or occupation of an outside authority. The incumbents and office-holders are listed by names most commonly used in English language, where appropriate, the alternations in Lithuanian, Ruthenian and Polish are included. The state of Lithuania formed in 1230s, when threatened by the Livonian Order in the north and he became the only crowned king of Lithuania. His state became known as Grand Duchy of Lithuania, after Grand Duke Jogaila became also king of Poland in 1386, the two states became closer connected and since 1440 both were ruled by a common ruler. In 1569 Union of Lublin was signed and a new entity—the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth—emerged, the commonwealth was partitioned in 1795 and Lithuania became part of the Russian Empire till 16 February 1918. The Council of Lithuania was able to establish the sovereignty only in 1919, the first republic of Lithuania existed until 1940 when it was occupied by the Soviet Union. During the Soviet-German War, Lithuania was occupied by Nazi Germany, in 1944, as Germany was losing the war, Russia re-occupied Lithuania and established the Lithuanian Soviet Socialist Republic. On 11 March 1990, Lithuania became the first Soviet republic to declare independence, the restored Republic of Lithuania is a democratic republic, a member of both the European Union and NATO. Title, Grand Duke except for Mindaugas, who became king of Lithuania, dates are approximate because of scant written sources. The act of union with Poland was signed as early as 1385, however. The monarchs retained separate titles for both parts of the state, and their numbering was kept separately, the Jagiellon dynasty was a direct continuation of the Gediminids. The Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth was established by Union of Lublin in 1569, the elected King of Poland was to be elected by Lithuanian noble families as a Grand Duke of Lithuania. The first ruler of the country was Sigismund II Augustus. Following the partitions in 1772,1793, and 1795, the commonwealth ceased to exist, there are some gaps in the timeline as it took a while to elect a new king. Title, King of Poland and Grand Duke of Lithuania, the Council of Lithuania declared independence on 16 February 1918 and invited Wilhelm of Urach to become king of Lithuania. The name of the state was the Kingdom of Lithuania, on 9 July 1918, the council declared that the Duke of Urach is to become King Mindaugas II of Lithuania. However, on 2 November, the council revoked this decision because of its unpopularity, the institution of President was created on 4 April 1919
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Jagiellonian University
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The Jagiellonian University is a research university in Kraków, Poland. Notable alumni include, among others, mathematician and astronomer Nicolaus Copernicus, Polish king John III Sobieski, pope John Paul II, the campus of the Jagiellonian University is centrally located within the city of Kraków. The university consists of fifteen faculties — including the humanities, law, the natural and social sciences, the university employs roughly 4,000 academics, and has more than 40,000 students who study in some 80 disciplines. More than half of the student body are women, the language of instruction is usually Polish, although several degrees are offered in either German or English. The university library is one of Polands largest, and houses several medieval manuscripts, due to its history, the Jagiellonian University is traditionally considered Polands most reputable institution of higher learning — this standing equally being reflected in international rankings. The Jagiellonian University is a member of the Coimbra Group and Europaeum and his efforts to found an institution of higher learning in Poland were rewarded when Pope Urban V granted him permission to set up a university in Kraków. A royal charter of foundation was issued on 12 May 1364, and it is believed that, in all likelihood, the construction of a building to house the Studium Generale began on Plac Wolnica in what is today the district of Kazimierz. After a period of disinterest and lack of funds, the institution was restored in the 1390s by King Władysław II Jagiełło and his wife Saint Hedwig, the Queen donated all of her personal jewelry to the university, allowing it to enroll 203 students. The university was the first university in Europe to establish independent chairs in Mathematics, during the second half of the 15th century, over 40 percent of students came from outside the Kingdom of Poland. The first chancellor of the University was Piotr Wysz, and the first professors were Czechs, Germans and Poles, by 1520 Greek philology was introduced by Constanzo Claretti and Wenzel von Hirschberg, Hebrew was also taught. At this time, the Collegium Maius comprised seven reading rooms, six of which were named for the ancient scholars, Aristotle, Socrates, Plato, Galen, Ptolemy. The librarys original rooms, in all books were chained to their cases in order to prevent theft, are no longer used as such. However, they are occasionally opened to host visiting lecturers talks. If the lecture halls underwent refurbishment they could be rented out to accommodate a laundry and this period thus represents one of the darkest periods in the universitys history and is almost certainly the one during which the closure of the institution seemed most imminent. After the third partition of Poland in 1795 and the ensuing Napoleonic Wars, Kraków became a city under the protection of the Austrian Empire. In 1846, after the Kraków Uprising, the city and its university became part of the Austrian Empire, however, the threat of closure of the University was ultimately dissipated by Kaiser Ferdinand I of Austrias decree to maintain it. By the 1870s the fortunes of the university had improved so greatly that many scholars had returned, the liquefaction of nitrogen and oxygen was successfully demonstrated by professors Zygmunt Wróblewski and Karol Olszewski in 1883. It was, conversely, from this building that in 1918 a large painting of Kaiser Franz Joseph was removed and destroyed by Polish students advocating the reestablishment of an independent Polish state
18.
Third Partition of Poland
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Accordingly, the partitioning powers agreed to permanently erase Polands name from existence, including from their respective encyclopaedias. In addition, to strengthen Polands international standings, King Stanislaus signed the Polish-Prussian Pact of 1790, angered by what was seen as dangerous, Jacobin-style reforms, Russia invaded Poland in 1792, beginning the War in Defense of the Constitution. Catherine II and Frederick William II were quick to respond and, despite initial successes by Kosciuszko’s forces, the uprising was crushed by November 1794. According to legend, when Kosciuszko fell off of his horse at the Battle of Maciejowice, shortly before he was captured, he said Finis Poloniae, meaning this is the end of Poland. Following the end of the Kosciuszko rebellion, Austria, Prussia, the partition coalition forced King Stanislaus to abdicate and he retired to St. Petersburg as Catherine IIs trophy prisoner, where he died in 1798. The high contracting parties are agreed and undertake never to include in their titles, the name or designation of the Kingdom of Poland, which shall remain suppressed as from the present and forever. The Third Partition of Poland ended the existence of an independent Polish state for the next 123 years and these Polish nationalists participated in uprisings against Austria, Prussia, and Russia in former Polish lands, and many would serve France as part of Napoleons armies. In addition, Polish poets and artists would make the desire for national freedom a defining characteristic of the Polish Romanticist movement, Poland briefly regained semi-autonomy in 1807 when Napoleon created the Duchy of Warsaw, but this effectively ended with the Congress of Vienna in 1815. The Congress created a Kingdom of Poland, sometimes called Congress Poland, even this, however, came to an end after a Polish insurrection in 1831, at which point Russia dissolved the Congress Kingdom and exacted multiple punitive measures on the Polish populace. Russia then made Poland an official part of the Russian Empire, Administrative division of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth in the course of partitions Administrative division of Polish territories after partitions Davies, Norman. Gods Playground, A History of Poland, revised Edition ed. Oxford, Clarendon Press,2005. The Slavonic Review Mar.1925, 481–498, steed, Henry Wickham, W. Alison Phillips, and David Hannay. A Short History of Austria-Hungary and Poland, Partitions of Poland – Britannica Online Encyclopedia. The Period of Partitions – resources Encyclopedia Britannica, Poland Europaworld Online, Poland The Partitions of Poland
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November Uprising
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The November Uprising, Polish–Russian War 1830–31, also known as the Cadet Revolution, was an armed rebellion in the heartland of partitioned Poland against the Russian Empire. The uprising began on 29 November 1830 in Warsaw when the young Polish officers from the local Army of the Congress Polands military academy revolted, led by lieutenant Piotr Wysocki and they were soon joined by large segments of societies of Lithuania, Belarus, and the Right-bank Ukraine. Despite local successes, the uprising was crushed by a numerically superior Imperial Russian Army under Ivan Paskevich. Tsar Nicholas I decreed that henceforth Poland was a part of Russia, with Warsaw little more than a military garrison. After the Partitions of Poland, Poland ceased to exist as an independent political entity at the end of 1795, however, the Napoleonic Wars and Polish participation in the wars against Russia and Austria resulted in the creation the Duchy of Warsaw in 1807. The Congress of Vienna brought that states existence to an end in 1815, and essentially solidified the long-term division of Poland among Russia, Prussia, United with Russia through a personal union with the Tsar as King of Poland, the province could elect its own parliament and government. The kingdom had its own courts, army and treasury, over time, however, the freedoms granted to the Kingdom were gradually taken back and the constitution was progressively ignored by the Russian authorities. Alexander I of Russia never formally crowned himself as King of Poland, instead, in 1815, he appointed Grand Duke Constantine Pavlovich as de facto viceroy, disregarding the constitution. Soon after the Congress of Vienna resolutions were signed, Russia ceased to respect them, in 1819 Alexander I abandoned liberty of the press in Congress Kingdom and introduced censorship. As a result, after 1825 sessions of Polish Sejm were conducted in secret, Nicholas I of Russia formally crowned himself as King of Poland on 24 May 1829 in Warsaw. He abolished Polish social and patriotic organizations, the opposition of the Kaliszanie faction. Although married to a Pole, he was considered as an enemy of the Polish nation. Also, his command over the Polish Army led to conflicts within the officer corps. These frictions led to various conspiracies throughout the country, most notably within the army, the final spark that ignited Warsaw was a Russian plan to use the Polish Army to suppress Frances July Revolution and the Belgian Revolution, in clear violation of the Polish constitution. The rebels managed to enter the Belweder, but Grand Duke Constantine had escaped in womens clothing, the rebels then turned to the main city arsenal, capturing it after a brief struggle. The following day, armed Polish civilians forced the Russian troops to north of Warsaw. This incident is called the Warsaw Uprising or the November Night. Taken by surprise by the unfolding of events during the night of 29 November
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Aftermath of World War I
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The aftermath of World War I saw drastic political, cultural, economic, and social change across Europe, Asia, Africa, and even in areas outside those that were directly involved. As Germany was dependent on imports, it is estimated that 523,000 civilians had lost their lives. N. P. Howard, of the University of Sheffield, the continuation of the blockade after the fighting ended, as author Robert Leckie wrote in Delivered From Evil, did much to torment the Germans. Driving them with the fury of despair into the arms of the devil, the terms of the Armistice did allow food to be shipped into Germany, but the Allies required that Germany provide the means to do so. The German government was required to use its reserves, being unable to secure a loan from the United States. Further, Marks states that despite the problems facing the Allies, from the German government, gläser further claims that during the early months of 1919, while the main relief effort was being planned, France provided food shipments to Bavaria and the Rhineland. She further claims that the German government delayed the effort by refusing to surrender their merchant fleet to the Allies. Finally, she concludes that the success of the relief effort had in effect deprived the of a credible threat to induce Germany to sign the Treaty of Versailles. Food shipments, furthermore, had been dependent on Allied goodwill. Other treaties ended the belligerent relationships of the United States and the other Central Powers, included in the 440 articles of the Treaty of Versailles were the demands that Germany officially accept responsibility for starting the war and pay economic reparations. Historians continue to argue about the impact the 1918 flu pandemic had on the outcome of the war and it has been posited that the Central Powers may have been exposed to the viral wave before the Allies. The resulting casualties having greater effect, having been incurred during the war, when the extent of the epidemic was realized, the respective censorship programs of the Allies and Central Powers limited the publics knowledge regarding the true extent of the disease. Because Spain was neutral, their media was free to report on the Flu and this misunderstanding led to contemporary reports naming it the Spanish flu. A significant precursor virus was harbored in birds, and mutated to pigs that were kept near the front, the exact number of deaths is unknown but about 50 million people are estimated to have died from the influenza outbreak worldwide. The dissolution of the German, Russian, Austro-Hungarian and Ottoman empires created a number of new countries in eastern Europe and the Middle East. Some of them, such as Czechoslovakia and Poland, had substantial ethnic minorities who were not fully satisfied with the new boundaries that cut them off from fellow ethnics. For example, Czechoslovakia had Germans, Poles, Ruthenians and Ukrainians, Slovaks, the League of Nations sponsored various Minority Treaties in an attempt to deal with the problem, but with the decline of the League in the 1930s, these treaties became increasingly unenforceable. One consequence of the redrawing of borders and the political changes in the aftermath of the war was the large number of European refugees
21.
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
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Second Polish Republic
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The Second Polish Republic, also known as the Second Commonwealth of Poland or interwar Poland, refers to the country of Poland between the First and Second World Wars. Officially known as the Republic of Poland or the Commonwealth of Poland and it had access to the Baltic Sea via a short strip of coastline either side of the city of Gdynia. Between March and August 1939, Poland also shared a border with the then-Hungarian governorate of Subcarpathia, the Second Republic was significantly different in territory to the current Polish state. It included substantially more territory in the east and less in the west, the Second Republics land area was 388,634 km2, making it, in October 1938, the sixth largest country in Europe. After the annexation of Zaolzie, this grew to 389,720 km2, according to the 1921 census, the number of inhabitants was 27.2 million. By 1939, just before the outbreak of World War II, almost a third of population came from minority groups,13. 9% Ukrainians, 10% Jews,3. 1% Belarusians,2. 3% Germans and 3. 4% Czechs, Lithuanians and Russians. At the same time, a significant number of ethnic Poles lived outside the country borders, Poland maintained a slow but steady level of economic development. By 1939, the Republic had become one of Europes major powers, the victorious Allies of World War I confirmed the rebirth of Poland in the Treaty of Versailles of June 1919. It was one of the stories of the 1919 Paris Peace Conference. Poland solidified its independence in a series of wars fought by the newly formed Polish Army from 1918 to 1921. The extent of the half of the interwar territory of Poland was settled diplomatically in 1922. In the course of World War I, Germany gradually gained overall dominance on the Eastern Front as the Imperial Russian Army fell back, German and Austro-Hungarian armies seized the Russian-ruled part of what became Poland. In a failed attempt to resolve the Polish question as quickly as possible, Berlin set up a German puppet state on 5 November 1916, with a governing Provisional Council of State, the Council administered the country under German auspices, pending the election of a king. A month before Germany surrendered on 11 November 1918 and the war ended, the Regency Council had dissolved the Council of State, with the notable exception of the Marxist-oriented Social Democratic Party of the Kingdom of Poland and Lithuania, most Polish political parties supported this move. On 23 October the Regency Council appointed a new government under Józef Świeżyński, in 1918–1919, over 100 workers councils sprang up on Polish territories, on 5 November 1918, in Lublin, the first Soviet of Delegates was established. On 6 November socialists proclaimed the Republic of Tarnobrzeg at Tarnobrzeg in Austrian Galicia, the same day the Socialist, Ignacy Daszyński, set up a Provisional Peoples Government of the Republic of Poland in Lublin. On Sunday,10 November at 7 a. m, Józef Piłsudski, newly freed from 16 months in a German prison in Magdeburg, returned by train to Warsaw. Piłsudski, together with Colonel Kazimierz Sosnkowski, was greeted at Warsaws railway station by Regent Zdzisław Lubomirski, next day, due to his popularity and support from most political parties, the Regency Council appointed Piłsudski as Commander in Chief of the Polish Armed Forces
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Republic of Central Lithuania
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The Republic of Central Lithuania or Middle Lithuania, or Central Lithuania, was a short-lived political entity, which did not gain international recognition. After a variety of delays, an election took place on January 8,1922. The republic was regarded by some as a Poland-dependent puppet state, in 1931 an international court in The Hague issued the statement that the Polish seizure of the city had been a violation of international law, but without any political aftermath. The Republic of Central Lithuania was characterized as a puppet state, following the partitions of Poland, most of the lands that formerly constituted the Grand Duchy of Lithuania were annexed by the Russian Empire. The Imperial government increasingly pursued a policy of Russification of the acquired lands. The discrimination against local inhabitants included restrictions and outright bans on the usage of the Polish, Lithuanian, Belarusian and these measures, however, had limited effects on the Polonisation effort undertaken by the Polish patriotic leadership of the Vilnius educational district. A similar effort was pursued during the 19th century Lithuanian National Revival, the ethnic composition of the area has long been disputed, since censuses from that time and place are often considered unreliable. Poles —58. 0% Lithuanians —18. 5% Jews —14. 7% Belarusians —6. 4% Russians —1. 2% Other —1. 2% Both censuses had encountered difficulties in the attempt to categorise their subjects. Ethnographers in the 1890s were often confronted with those who described themselves as both Lithuanians and Poles, according to a German census analyst, Objectively determining conditions of nationality comes up against the greatest difficulties. In the aftermath of the First World War, both Poland and Lithuania regained independence, the conflict between them soon arose as both Lithuania and Poland claimed Vilnius region. Demographically, Vilnius was divided evenly between Poles and Jews, with ethnic Lithuanians constituting a smaller fraction of the total population. The Lithuanians nonetheless believed that their claim to the city had precedence and refused to recognize any Polish claims to the city. Two early 20th-century censuses indicated that Lithuanian speakers were a minority in the region, Lithuanian authorities, however, argued that the majority of inhabitants living there, even if they did not speak Lithuanian and considered themselves Poles, were Polonized Lithuanians. Further complicating the situation, there were two Polish factions with different views on creation of the modern state in Poland. One party, led by Roman Dmowski, saw modern Poland as a state, another, led by Józef Piłsudski. Both parties were determined to take the Poles of Vilnius into the new state, the inclusion of territories predominant with non-Poles would have weakened support for Dmowski. At the end of World War I, the area of the former Grand Duchy of Lithuania was divided between the Republic of Poland, the Belarusian National Republic, and the Republic of Lithuania. Following the start of the Polish-Soviet War, during the two years, the control of Vilnius and its environs changed frequently
24.
Soviet invasion of Poland
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The Soviet invasion of Poland was a Soviet military operation that started without a formal declaration of war on 17 September 1939. On that morning,16 days after Nazi Germany invaded Poland from the west, the joint German-Soviet invasion of Poland was secretly agreed in the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact, signed on 23 August 1939. The Red Army, which outnumbered the Polish defenders, achieved its targets by using strategic. Some 230,000 Polish prisoners of war had been captured, the campaign of mass persecution in the newly acquired areas began immediately. In November 1939 the Soviet government ostensibly annexed the entire Polish territory under its control, the Soviet campaign of ethnic cleansing began with the wave of arrests and summary executions of officers, policemen and priests. Soviet forces occupied eastern Poland until the summer of 1941, when they were out by the invading German army in the course of Operation Barbarossa. The area was under Nazi occupation until the Red Army reconquered it again in the summer of 1944, the Soviet Union enclosed most of the annexed territories into the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic and the Byelorussian Soviet Socialist Republic. After the end of World War II in Europe, the USSR signed a new border agreement with the Polish communists on 16 August 1945. The USSR played a double game secretly engaging in talks with Germany. The terms were rejected, thus giving Josef Stalin a free hand in pursuing the Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact with Adolf Hitler, the non-aggression pact contained a secret protocol dividing Northern and Eastern Europe into German and Soviet spheres of influence in the event of war. One week after the signing of the Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact, German forces invaded Poland from the west, north, Polish forces gradually withdrew to the southeast where they prepared for a long defence of the Romanian Bridgehead and awaited the French and British support and relief that they were expecting. On 17 September 1939 the Soviet Red Army invaded the Kresy regions in accordance with the secret protocol, at the opening of hostilities several Polish cities including Dubno, Łuck and Włodzimierz Wołyński let the Red Army in peacefully, convinced that it was marching on to fight the Germans. General Juliusz Rómmel of the Polish Army issued an order to treat them like an ally before it was too late. The result of the Paris Peace Conference did little to decrease the territorial ambitions of parties in the region, the border skirmishes of 1919 progressively escalated into the Polish–Soviet War in 1920. Following the Polish victory at the Battle of Warsaw, the Soviets sued for peace, the parties signed the formal peace treaty, the Peace of Riga, on 18 March 1921, dividing the disputed territories between Poland and Soviet Russia. In the aftermath of the agreement, Soviet leaders largely abandoned the cause of international revolution. The Conference of Ambassadors and the community recognized Polands eastern frontiers in 1923. Germany marched into Prague on 15 March 1939, in mid-April, the Soviet Union, Britain and France began trading diplomatic suggestions regarding a political and military agreement to counter potential further German aggression
25.
Soviet occupation of the Baltic states (1940)
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The Soviet occupation of the Baltic states covers the period from the Soviet–Baltic mutual assistance pacts in 1939, to their invasion and annexation in 1940, to the mass deportations of 1941. In September and October 1939 the Soviet government compelled the much smaller Baltic states to conclude mutual assistance pacts which gave the Soviets the right to military bases there. Following invasion by the Red Army in the summer of 1940, the presidents of Estonia and Latvia were imprisoned and later died in Siberia. Under Soviet supervision, new puppet communist governments and fellow travelers arranged rigged elections with falsified results, shortly thereafter, the newly elected peoples assemblies passed resolutions requesting admission into the Soviet Union. In June 1941 the new Soviet governments carried out mass deportations of enemies of the people, consequently, at first many Balts greeted the Germans as liberators when they occupied the area a week later. The Soviets pressured Finland and the Baltic states to conclude mutual assistance treaties, the Soviets questioned the neutrality of Estonia following the escape of a Polish submarine from Tallinn on 18 September. A week later, on 24 September 1939, the Estonian foreign minister was given an ultimatum in Moscow, the Soviets demanded the conclusion of a treaty of mutual assistance to establish military bases in Estonia. The Estonians had no choice but to allow the establishment of Soviet naval, air, the corresponding agreement was signed on 28 September 1939. Latvia followed on 5 October 1939 and Lithuania shortly thereafter, on 10 October 1939, in 1939 Finland had rejected similar Soviet demands for Finland ceding or leasing parts of its territory. Consequently, the Soviet Union attacked Finland, starting the Winter War in November, the war ended in March 1940 with Finnish territorial losses exceeding the pre-war Soviet demands, but Finland kept its sovereignty. The Baltic states were neutral in the Winter War and the Soviets praised their relations with the USSR as exemplary. The Soviet troops allocated for military actions against the Baltic states numbered 435,000 troops, around 8,000 guns and mortars, over 3,000 tanks. On 3 June 1940 all Soviet military forces based in Baltic states were concentrated under the command of Aleksandr Loktionov, on 14 June 1940 the Soviets issued an ultimatum to Lithuania. The Soviet military blockade of Estonia went into effect while the attention was focused on the fall of Paris to Nazi Germany. Two Soviet bombers downed the Finnish passenger airplane Kaleva flying from Tallinn to Helsinki carrying three diplomatic pouches from the U. S. legations in Tallinn, Riga and Helsinki, the US Foreign Service employee Henry W. Antheil Jr. was killed in the crash. Molotov had accused the Baltic states of conspiracy against the Soviet Union, the occupation of the Baltic states coincided with a communist coup détat in each country, supported by the Soviet troops. On 15 June the USSR invaded Lithuania, the Soviet troops attacked the Latvian border guards at Masļenki. On 16 June 1940 the USSR invaded Estonia and Latvia, Soviet troops in the hundreds of thousands entered Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania
26.
Operation Barbarossa
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Operation Barbarossa was the code name for Nazi Germanys invasion of the Soviet Union during World War II, which was launched on Sunday 22 June 1941. In the two leading up to the invasion, the two countries signed political and economic pacts for strategic purposes. Nevertheless, the German High Command began planning an invasion of the Soviet Union in July 1940, over the course of the operation, about four million Axis personnel invaded the western Soviet Union along a 2, 900-kilometer front, the largest invasion force in the history of warfare. In addition to troops, the Wehrmacht employed some 600,000 motor vehicles, the offensive marked an escalation of the war, both geographically and in the formation of the Allied coalition. Despite their successes, the German offensive stalled in the Battle of Moscow and was pushed back by the Soviet winter counteroffensive. The Red Army repelled the Wehrmachts strongest blows and forced the unprepared Germans into a war of attrition, the Wehrmacht would never again mount a simultaneous offensive along the entire strategic Soviet–Axis front. The failure of the operation drove Hitler to demand further operations of limited scope inside the Soviet Union, such as Case Blue. The failure of Operation Barbarossa proved a point in the fortunes of the Third Reich. Most importantly, the operation opened up the Eastern Front, in more forces were committed than in any other theater of war in world history. The German armies captured 5,000,000 Soviet prisoners of war who were not granted protections stipulated in the Geneva Conventions, a majority of them never returned alive. The Nazis deliberately starved 3.1 million of the prisoners to death as part of a Hunger Plan that aimed to reduce the population of Eastern Europe, over a million Soviet Jews were murdered by Einsatzgruppen death squads and gassing as part of the Holocaust. On 10 February 1939, Hitler told his commanders that the next war would be purely a war of Weltanschauungen. Totally a peoples war, a racial war, on 23 November, once World War II had already started, Hitler declared that racial war has broken out and this war shall determine who shall govern Europe, and with it, the world. The racial policy of Nazi Germany viewed the Soviet Union as populated by non-Aryan Untermenschen, Hitler claimed in Mein Kampf that Germanys destiny was to turn to the East as it did six hundred years ago. Accordingly, it was stated Nazi policy to kill, deport, or enslave the majority of Russian and other Slavic populations and repopulate the land with Germanic peoples, under the Generalplan Ost. Likening the Soviets to the forces of Genghis Khan, Hitler told Croatian military leader Slavko Kvaternik that the Mongolian race threatened Europe. Following the invasion, Wehrmacht officers told their soldiers to target people who were described as Jewish Bolshevik subhumans, the Mongol hordes, the Asiatic flood, German army commanders cast the Jews as the major cause behind the partisan struggle. The main guideline policy for German troops was Where theres a partisan, theres a Jew, many German troops viewed the war in Nazi terms and regarded their Soviet enemies as sub-human
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Lithuanian Soviet Socialist Republic
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The Lithuanian Soviet Socialist Republic, also known as Soviet Lithuania or Lithuania was a republic of the Soviet Union. It existed from 1940 to 1990, between 1941 and 1944, the German invasion of the Soviet Union caused its de facto dissolution. However, with the retreat of the Germans in 1944–1945, Soviet hegemony was re-established, on 18 May 1989, the Lithuanian SSR declared state sovereignty within its borders during perestroika. On 11 March 1990, the Republic of Lithuania was declared to be re-established as an independent state, Soviet Union itself recognized Lithuanian independence on 6 September 1991. There had been an attempt to establish a Soviet government in Lithuania by the Bolshevik Red Army in 1918–1919. The Lithuanian SSR was first proclaimed on 16 December 1918, by the revolutionary government of Lithuania. The Lithuanian SSR was supported by the Red Army, but it failed to create a de facto government with any support as the Council of Lithuania had successfully done earlier. It has been suggested that the failure to conquer Poland in the Polish–Soviet War prevented the Soviets from invading Lithuania, the Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact of August 1939, between Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union, stated that Lithuania was to be included into the German sphere of influence. However soon after World War II began in September 1939, and this was granted in exchange for Lublin and parts of the Warsaw province of Poland, originally ascribed to the Soviet Union, but by that time already occupied by German forces. Following the 1940 Soviet ultimatum to Lithuania and subsequent invasion of 15 June 1940, before doing so, in accordance with the Lithuanian constitution, he turned over his duties on a provisional basis to Prime Minister Antanas Merkys. The day after Smetonas departure, Merkys announced he had deposed Smetona and had taken over the presidency in his own right, on 17 June, at the behest of the Soviets, Merkys appointed a left-wing journalist, Justas Paleckis, as prime minister. Merkys then himself resigned, making Paleckis acting president as well, for all intents and purposes, Lithuania had lost its independence. Paleckis appointed a Communist-dominated peoples government with Vincas Krėvė-Mickevičius as prime minister and this government dissolved the Fourth Seimas and announced elections for a Peoples Seimas on 14 July. Voters were selected with a single list provided by the Union of the Working People of Lithuania, on 3 August, the Supreme Soviet of the USSR accepted the petition and admitted the Lithuanian SSR as the 14th republic of the Soviet Union. Lithuania now maintains that since Smetona never resigned, Merkys takeover of the presidency was illegal, Lithuania was subsequently invaded and occupied by Nazi Germany in June 1941. With the 1944 Soviet Baltic offensive, Soviet rule was re-established in July 1944, after both Soviet occupations, mass deportation of the Lithuanians into gulags and other forced settlements ensued. The United States refused to recognize the annexation of Lithuania or the other Baltic States, by the Soviet Union, all legal ties of the Soviet Unions sovereignty over the republic were cut as Lithuania declared the restitution of its independence. The Soviet Union claimed that this declaration was illegal, as Lithuania had to follow the process of secession mandated in the Soviet Constitution if it wanted to leave
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Student
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A student or pupil is a learner or someone who attends an educational institution. In Britain those attending university are termed students, in the United States, and more recently also in Britain, the term student is applied to both categories. In its widest use, student is used for anyone who is learning, including mid-career adults who are taking vocational education or returning to university. When speaking about learning outside an institution, student is used to refer to someone who is learning a topic or who is a student of a certain topic or person. In Nigeria, education is classified into four system known as 6-3-3-4 system of education and it implies six years in primary school, three years in junior secondary, three years in senior secondary and four years in the university. However, the number of years to be spent in university is determined by the course of study. Some courses have longer study length than others and those in primary school are often referred to as pupils. Those in university as well as those in school are being referred to as students. Six years of school education in Singapore is compulsory. International Schools are subject to overseas curriculums, such as the British, Primary education is compulsory in Bangladesh. Its a near crime to not to children to primary school when they are of age. But it is not a punishable crime, because of the socio-economic state of Bangladesh, child labour is sometimes legal. But the guardian must ensure the primary education, everyone who is learning in any institute or even online may be called student in Bangladesh. Sometimes students taking undergraduate education is called undergraduates and students taking post-graduate education may be called post-graduates, Education System Of Bangladesh, Education is free in Brunei. Darussalam not limited to government educational institutions but also private educational institutions, there are mainly two types of educational institutions, government or public, and private institutions. Several stages have to be undergone by the prospective students leading to higher qualifications, Primary School Secondary School High School Colleges University Level It takes six and five years to complete the primary and secondary levels respectively. Upon completing these two stages, students/pupils have freedom to progress to sixth-form centers, colleges or probably straight to employment. Students are permitted to progress towards university level programs in both government and private university colleges, Education in Cambodia is free for all the students who study in Primary School, Secondary School or High School
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Scholarly method
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It is the methods that systemically advance the teaching, research, and practice of a given scholarly or academic field of study through rigorous inquiry. Scholarship is noted by its significance to its particular profession, and is creative, can be documented, can be replicated or elaborated, the primary purpose of scholasticism is to find the answer to a question or to resolve a contradiction. It was once known for its application in medieval theology but was eventually applied to classical philosophy. The historical method comprises the techniques and guidelines by which historians use primary sources and other evidence to research, the question of the nature, and indeed the possibility, of sound historical method is raised in the philosophy of history, as a question of epistemology. History guidelines commonly used by historians in their work require external criticism, internal criticism, the empirical method is generally taken to mean the collection of data on which to base a hypothesis or derive a conclusion in science. It is part of the method, but is often mistakenly assumed to be synonymous with other methods. The empirical method is not sharply defined and is contrasted with the precision of experiments. The experimental method investigates causal relationships among variables, an experiment is a cornerstone of the empirical approach to acquiring data about the world and is used in both natural sciences and social sciences. An experiment can be used to solve practical problems and to support or negate theoretical assumptions. The scientific method refers to a body of techniques for investigating phenomena, acquiring new knowledge, to be termed scientific, a method of inquiry must be based on gathering observable, empirical and measurable evidence subject to specific principles of reasoning. A scientific method consists of the collection of data through observation and experimentation, there are numerous examples of ethical concerns, including, Confidentiality of information used, Participants’ anonymity, Consent by participants, Security and benefits to individuals
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Dissolution of the Soviet Union
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The Soviet Union was dissolved on December 26,1991. It was a result of the declaration number 142-Н of the Soviet of the Republics of the Supreme Soviet of the Soviet Union and that evening at 7,32, the Soviet flag was lowered from the Kremlin for the last time and replaced with the pre-revolutionary Russian flag. Previously, from August to December, all the individual republics, the week before the unions formal dissolution,11 republics signed the Alma-Ata Protocol formally establishing the CIS and declaring that the Soviet Union had ceased to exist. The Revolutions of 1989 and the dissolution of the USSR also signalled the end of the Cold War, on the other hand, only the Baltic states have joined NATO and the European Union. Mikhail Gorbachev was elected General Secretary by the Politburo on March 11,1985, Gorbachev, aged 54, was the youngest member of the Politburo. His initial goal as general secretary was to revive the Soviet economy, the reforms began with personnel changes of senior Brezhnev-era officials who would impede political and economic change. On April 23,1985, Gorbachev brought two protégés, Yegor Ligachev and Nikolai Ryzhkov, into the Politburo as full members. He kept the power ministries happy by promoting KGB Head Viktor Chebrikov from candidate to full member and this liberalisation, however, fostered nationalist movements and ethnic disputes within the Soviet Union. Under Gorbachevs leadership, the Communist Party of the Soviet Union in 1989 introduced limited competitive elections to a new central legislature, in May 1985, Gorbachev delivered a speech in Leningrad advocating reforms and an anti-alcohol campaign to tackle widespread alcoholism. Prices of vodka, wine, and beer were raised in order to make these drinks more expensive and a disincentive to consumers, unlike most forms of rationing intended to conserve scarce goods, this was done to restrict sales with the overt goal of curtailing drunkenness. Gorbachevs plan also included billboards promoting sobriety, increased penalties for public drunkenness, however, Gorbachev soon faced the same adverse economic reaction to his prohibition as did the last Tsar. The disincentivization of alcohol consumption was a blow to the state budget according to Alexander Yakovlev. Alcohol production migrated to the market, or through moonshining as some made bathtub vodka with homegrown potatoes. The purpose of these reforms, however, was to prop up the centrally planned economy, unlike later reforms. The latter, disparaged as Mr Nyet in the West, had served for 28 years as Minister of Foreign Affairs, gromyko was relegated to the largely ceremonial position of Chairman of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet, as he was considered an old thinker. In the fall of 1985, Gorbachev continued to bring younger, at the next Central Committee meeting on October 15, Tikhonov retired from the Politburo and Talyzin became a candidate. Finally, on December 23,1985, Gorbachev appointed Yeltsin First Secretary of the Moscow Communist Party replacing Viktor Grishin, Gorbachev continued to press for greater liberalization. The CTAG Helsinki-86 was founded in July 1986 in the Latvian port town of Liepāja by three workers, Linards Grantiņš, Raimonds Bitenieks, and Mārtiņš Bariss and its name refers to the human-rights statements of the Helsinki Accords
31.
Gothic architecture
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Gothic architecture is a style of architecture that flourished in Europe during the high and late medieval period. It evolved from Romanesque architecture and was succeeded by Renaissance architecture and its characteristics include the pointed arch, the ribbed vault and the flying buttress. Gothic architecture is most familiar as the architecture of many of the cathedrals, abbeys. It is also the architecture of many castles, palaces, town halls, guild halls, universities and to a less prominent extent, private dwellings, for this reason a study of Gothic architecture is largely a study of cathedrals and churches. A series of Gothic revivals began in mid-18th-century England, spread through 19th-century Europe and continued, largely for ecclesiastical and university structures, the term Gothic architecture originated as a pejorative description. Hence, François Rabelais, also of the 16th century, imagines an inscription over the door of his utopian Abbey of Thélème, Here enter no hypocrites, slipping in a slighting reference to Gotz and Ostrogotz. Authorities such as Christopher Wren lent their aid in deprecating the old medieval style, the Company disapproved of several of these new manners, which are defective and which belong for the most part to the Gothic. Gothic architecture is the architecture of the medieval period, characterised by use of the pointed arch. As an architectural style, Gothic developed primarily in ecclesiastical architecture, the greatest number of surviving Gothic buildings are churches. The Gothic style is most particularly associated with the cathedrals of Northern France. At the end of the 12th century, Europe was divided into a multitude of city states, norway came under the influence of England, while the other Scandinavian countries and Poland were influenced by trading contacts with the Hanseatic League. Angevin kings brought the Gothic tradition from France to Southern Italy, throughout Europe at this time there was a rapid growth in trade and an associated growth in towns. Germany and the Lowlands had large flourishing towns that grew in comparative peace, in trade and competition with other, or united for mutual weal. Civic building was of importance to these towns as a sign of wealth. England and France remained largely feudal and produced grand domestic architecture for their kings, dukes and bishops, the Catholic Church prevailed across Europe at this time, influencing not only faith but also wealth and power. Bishops were appointed by the lords and they often ruled as virtual princes over large estates. The early Medieval periods had seen a growth in monasticism, with several different orders being prevalent. Foremost were the Benedictines whose great abbey churches vastly outnumbered any others in France, a part of their influence was that towns developed around them and they became centers of culture, learning and commerce
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Renaissance
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The Renaissance was a period in European history, from the 14th to the 17th century, regarded as the cultural bridge between the Middle Ages and modern history. It started as a movement in Italy in the Late Medieval period and later spread to the rest of Europe. This new thinking became manifest in art, architecture, politics, science, Early examples were the development of perspective in oil painting and the recycled knowledge of how to make concrete. Although the invention of movable type sped the dissemination of ideas from the later 15th century. In politics, the Renaissance contributed to the development of the customs and conventions of diplomacy, the Renaissance began in Florence, in the 14th century. Other major centres were northern Italian city-states such as Venice, Genoa, Milan, Bologna, the word Renaissance, literally meaning Rebirth in French, first appeared in English in the 1830s. The word also occurs in Jules Michelets 1855 work, Histoire de France, the word Renaissance has also been extended to other historical and cultural movements, such as the Carolingian Renaissance and the Renaissance of the 12th century. The Renaissance was a movement that profoundly affected European intellectual life in the early modern period. Renaissance scholars employed the humanist method in study, and searched for realism, however, a subtle shift took place in the way that intellectuals approached religion that was reflected in many other areas of cultural life. In addition, many Greek Christian works, including the Greek New Testament, were back from Byzantium to Western Europe. Political philosophers, most famously Niccolò Machiavelli, sought to describe life as it really was. Others see more competition between artists and polymaths such as Brunelleschi, Ghiberti, Donatello, and Masaccio for artistic commissions as sparking the creativity of the Renaissance. Yet it remains much debated why the Renaissance began in Italy, accordingly, several theories have been put forward to explain its origins. During the Renaissance, money and art went hand in hand, Artists depended entirely on patrons while the patrons needed money to foster artistic talent. Wealth was brought to Italy in the 14th, 15th, and 16th centuries by expanding trade into Asia, silver mining in Tyrol increased the flow of money. Luxuries from the Eastern world, brought home during the Crusades, increased the prosperity of Genoa, unlike with Latin texts, which had been preserved and studied in Western Europe since late antiquity, the study of ancient Greek texts was very limited in medieval Western Europe. One of the greatest achievements of Renaissance scholars was to bring this entire class of Greek cultural works back into Western Europe for the first time since late antiquity, Arab logicians had inherited Greek ideas after they had invaded and conquered Egypt and the Levant. Their translations and commentaries on these ideas worked their way through the Arab West into Spain and Sicily and this work of translation from Islamic culture, though largely unplanned and disorganized, constituted one of the greatest transmissions of ideas in history
33.
Baroque
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The style began around 1600 in Rome and Italy, and spread to most of Europe. The aristocracy viewed the dramatic style of Baroque art and architecture as a means of impressing visitors by projecting triumph, power, Baroque palaces are built around an entrance of courts, grand staircases, and reception rooms of sequentially increasing opulence. However, baroque has a resonance and application that extend beyond a reduction to either a style or period. It is also yields the Italian barocco and modern Spanish barroco, German Barock, Dutch Barok, others derive it from the mnemonic term Baroco, a supposedly laboured form of syllogism in logical Scholastica. The Latin root can be found in bis-roca, in informal usage, the word baroque can simply mean that something is elaborate, with many details, without reference to the Baroque styles of the 17th and 18th centuries. The word Baroque, like most periodic or stylistic designations, was invented by later critics rather than practitioners of the arts in the 17th, the term Baroque was initially used in a derogatory sense, to underline the excesses of its emphasis. In particular, the term was used to describe its eccentric redundancy and noisy abundance of details, although it was long thought that the word as a critical term was first applied to architecture, in fact it appears earlier in reference to music. Another hypothesis says that the word comes from precursors of the style, Giacomo Barozzi da Vignola and he did not make the distinctions between Mannerism and Baroque that modern writers do, and he ignored the later phase, the academic Baroque that lasted into the 18th century. Long despised, Baroque art and architecture became fashionable between the two World Wars, and has remained in critical favour. In painting the gradual rise in popular esteem of Caravaggio has been the best barometer of modern taste, William Watson describes a late phase of Shang-dynasty Chinese ritual bronzes of the 11th century BC as baroque. The term Baroque may still be used, usually pejoratively, describing works of art, craft, the appeal of Baroque style turned consciously from the witty, intellectual qualities of 16th-century Mannerist art to a visceral appeal aimed at the senses. It employed an iconography that was direct, simple, obvious, germinal ideas of the Baroque can also be found in the work of Michelangelo. Even more generalised parallels perceived by some experts in philosophy, prose style, see the Neapolitan palace of Caserta, a Baroque palace whose construction began in 1752. In paintings Baroque gestures are broader than Mannerist gestures, less ambiguous, less arcane and mysterious, more like the stage gestures of opera, Baroque poses depend on contrapposto, the tension within the figures that move the planes of shoulders and hips in counterdirections. Baroque is a style of unity imposed upon rich, heavy detail, Baroque style featured exaggerated lighting, intense emotions, release from restraint, and even a kind of artistic sensationalism. There were highly diverse strands of Italian baroque painting, from Caravaggio to Cortona, the most prominent Spanish painter of the Baroque was Diego Velázquez. The later Baroque style gradually gave way to a more decorative Rococo, while the Baroque nature of Rembrandts art is clear, the label is less often used for Vermeer and many other Dutch artists. Flemish Baroque painting shared a part in this trend, while continuing to produce the traditional categories
