1.
Russian language
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Russian is an East Slavic language and an official language in Russia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan and many minor or unrecognised territories. Russian belongs to the family of Indo-European languages and is one of the four living members of the East Slavic languages, written examples of Old East Slavonic are attested from the 10th century and beyond. It is the most geographically widespread language of Eurasia and the most widely spoken of the Slavic languages and it is also the largest native language in Europe, with 144 million native speakers in Russia, Ukraine and Belarus. Russian is the eighth most spoken language in the world by number of native speakers, the language is one of the six official languages of the United Nations. Russian is also the second most widespread language on the Internet after English, Russian distinguishes between consonant phonemes with palatal secondary articulation and those without, the so-called soft and hard sounds. This distinction is found between pairs of almost all consonants and is one of the most distinguishing features of the language, another important aspect is the reduction of unstressed vowels. Russian is a Slavic language of the Indo-European family and it is a lineal descendant of the language used in Kievan Rus. From the point of view of the language, its closest relatives are Ukrainian, Belarusian, and Rusyn. An East Slavic Old Novgorod dialect, although vanished during the 15th or 16th century, is considered to have played a significant role in the formation of modern Russian. In the 19th century, the language was often called Great Russian to distinguish it from Belarusian, then called White Russian and Ukrainian, however, the East Slavic forms have tended to be used exclusively in the various dialects that are experiencing a rapid decline. In some cases, both the East Slavic and the Church Slavonic forms are in use, with different meanings. For details, see Russian phonology and History of the Russian language and it is also regarded by the United States Intelligence Community as a hard target language, due to both its difficulty to master for English speakers and its critical role in American world policy. The standard form of Russian is generally regarded as the modern Russian literary language, mikhail Lomonosov first compiled a normalizing grammar book in 1755, in 1783 the Russian Academys first explanatory Russian dictionary appeared. By the mid-20th century, such dialects were forced out with the introduction of the education system that was established by the Soviet government. Despite the formalization of Standard Russian, some nonstandard dialectal features are observed in colloquial speech. Thus, the Russian language is the 6th largest in the world by number of speakers, after English, Mandarin, Hindi/Urdu, Spanish, Russian is one of the six official languages of the United Nations. Education in Russian is still a choice for both Russian as a second language and native speakers in Russia as well as many of the former Soviet republics. Russian is still seen as an important language for children to learn in most of the former Soviet republics, samuel P. Huntington wrote in the Clash of Civilizations, During the heyday of the Soviet Union, Russian was the lingua franca from Prague to Hanoi
2.
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
3.
Dynamo Sports Club
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Dynamo, also Dinamo, is a sports and fitness society created in 1923 in the Soviet Union. The name given to the society was supposed to mean Power in Motion, taken from the Greek, δύναμις, dynamis -power, not coincidentally, this term was first coined earlier by a German inventor Ernst Werner von Siemens for the electrical generator. Dynamo, together with Armed Forces sports societies and Voluntary Sports Societies, made up the system of physical education. Forty-five sports disciplines were sanctioned by the society in 1971 and it had some 6,000 sports facilities and 43 Children and Youth Sport Schools. For the rest of the history in the Soviet period. Similarly-named clubs were created in countries of the Eastern bloc. Currently, Dynamo is an All-Russian fitness-sports society based in Moscow, in 1937 the Dynamo sports society was awarded the Order of Lenin
4.
Armed Forces (sports society)
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Established at first within officers clubs of the Red Army, after the Second World War they were reformed into sports clubs for all ranks in the armed forces. The army clubs were often abbreviated as SKA and previously as SKVO, the largest club was located in Moscow, CSKA Moscow. Leningrad Moscow Odessa Kiev Rostov-on-Don City represented and sports discipline are given in parentheses, because there were people from different sports societies in one team. Soviet Union at the Olympics CSKA Moscow Boris Khavin, - for tables and lists on 1952-1976 Olympics Official website Sport committee of friendly armies
5.
Hiking
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Hiking is the preferred term, in Canada and the United States, for a long, vigorous walk, usually on trails, in the countryside, while the word walking is used for shorter, particularly urban walks. On the other hand, in the United Kingdom, and the Republic of Ireland, the word hiking is also often used in the UK, along with rambling, hillwalking, and fell walking. The term bushwalking is endemic to Australia, having been adopted by the Sydney Bush Walkers club in 1927, in New Zealand a long, vigorous walk or hike is called tramping. It is an activity with numerous hiking organizations worldwide. In the United States, Canada, the Republic of Ireland, a day hike refers to a hike that can be completed in a single day. However, in the United Kingdom, the walking is also used, as well as rambling. In Northern England, Including the Lake District and Yorkshire Dales, fellwalking describes hill or mountain walks, hiking sometimes involves bushwhacking and is sometimes referred to as such. This specifically refers to walking through dense forest, undergrowth, or bushes. In extreme cases of bushwhacking, where the vegetation is so dense that human passage is impeded, the Australian term bushwalking refers to both on and off-trail hiking. Common terms for hiking used by New Zealanders are tramping, walking or bushwalking, trekking is the preferred word used to describe multi-day hiking in the mountainous regions of India, Pakistan, Nepal, North America, South America, Iran and in the highlands of East Africa. Hiking a long-distance trail from end-to-end is also referred to as trekking, in North America, multi-day hikes, usually with camping, are referred to as backpacking. The idea of taking a walk in the countryside for pleasure developed in the 18th-century, in earlier times walking generally indicated poverty and was also associated with vagrancy. Thomas West, an English priest, popularized the idea of walking for pleasure in his guide to the Lake District of 1778. To this end he included various stations or viewpoints around the lakes, published in 1778 the book was a major success. Another famous early exponent of walking for pleasure, was the English poet William Wordsworth, in 1790 he embarked on an extended tour of France, Switzerland, and Germany, a journey subsequently recorded in his long autobiographical poem The Prelude. His famous poem Tintern Abbey was inspired by a visit to the Wye Valley made during a tour of Wales in 1798 with his sister Dorothy Wordsworth. Wordsworths friend Coleridge was another keen walker and in the autumn of 1799, he and Wordsworth undertook a three weeks tour of the Lake District. John Keats, who belonged to the generation of Romantic poets began, in June 1818, a walking tour of Scotland, Ireland
6.
Mountaineering
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The term mountaineering describes the sport of mountain climbing, including ski mountaineering. Hiking in the mountains can also be a form of mountaineering when it involves scrambling, or short stretches of the more basic grades of rock climbing. All require experience, athletic ability, and technical knowledge to maintain safety, mountaineering is often called Alpinism, especially in European languages, which implies climbing with difficulty such high and often snow and ice-covered mountains as the Alps. A mountaineer with such great skill is called an Alpinist, historically, many cultures have harbored superstitions about mountains, which they often regarded as sacred due to their proximity with heaven, such as Mount Olympus for the Ancient Greeks. In 1492 Antoine de Ville, lord of Domjulien and Beaupré, was the first to ascend the Mont Aiguille, in France, with a team, using ladders. It appears to be the first recorded climb of any technical difficulty, in 1573 Francesco De Marchi and Francesco Di Domenico ascended Corno Grande, the highest peak in the Apennine Mountains. During the Enlightenment, as a product of the new spirit of curiosity for the natural world, in 1741 Richard Pococke and William Windham made a historic visit to Chamonix. By the early 19th century many of the peaks were reached, including the Grossglockner in 1800, the Ortler in 1804, the Jungfrau in 1811, the Finsteraarhorn in 1812. In 1808 Marie Paradis became the first female to climb Mont Blanc and this inaugurated what became known as the Golden age of alpinism, with the first mountaineering club - the Alpine Club - being founded in 1857. Well-known guides of the era include Christian Almer, Jakob Anderegg, Melchior Anderegg, J. J. Bennen, Michel Croz, in the early years of the golden age, scientific pursuits were intermixed with the sport, such as by the physicist John Tyndall. In the later years, it shifted to a more competitive orientation as pure sportsmen came to dominate the London-based Alpine Club and this ascent is generally regarded as marking the end of the mountaineering golden age. By this point the sport of mountaineering had largely reached its modern form, with a body of professional guides, equipment, mountaineering in the Americas became popular in the 1800s. In North America, Pikes Peak in the Colorado Rockies was first climbed by Edwin James, though lower than Pikes Peak, the heavily glaciated Fremont Peak in Wyoming was thought to be the tallest mountain in the Rockies when it was first climbed by John C. Frémont and two others in 1842, pico de Orizaba, the tallest peak in Mexico and third tallest in North America, was first climbed by U. S. military personnel which included William F. Raynolds and a half dozen other climbers in 1848. Heavily glaciated and more technical climbs in North American were not achieved until the late 19th, in 1897 Mount Saint Elias on the Alaska-Yukon border was summitted by the Duke of the Abruzzi and party. But it was not until 1913 that Mount Mckinley, the tallest peak in North America was successfully climbed by Hudson Stuck, Mount Logan, the tallest peak in Canada was first summitted by a half dozen climbers in 1925 in an expedition that took more than two months. In 1879-1880 the exploration of the highest Andes in South America began when English mountaineer Edward Whymper climbed Chimborazo, the summit of Aconcagua was finally reached on January 14,1897 by Swiss mountaineer Matthias Zurbriggen during an expedition led by Edward FitzGerald that began in December 1896. The Andes of Bolivia were first explored by Sir William Martin Conway in 1898 and it took until the late 19th century for European explorers to penetrate Africa
7.
Boating
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It is a popular activity, and there are millions of boaters worldwide. Recreational boats fall into broad categories, and additional subcategories. Broad categories include dinghies, paddlesports boats, runabouts, daysailers, cruisers, in addition to those standards all boats employ the same basic principles of hydrodynamics. Boating activities are as varied as the boats and boaters who participate, broad categories include the following, Paddlesports include ears, swiftwater, and oceangoing types, usually covered-cockpit kayaks. Canoes are popular on lakes and rivers due to their carrying capacity and they are also easy to portage, or carry overland around obstructions like rapids, or just down to the water from a car or cabin. Kayaks can be found on inland waters, whitewater rivers. Known for their maneuverability and seaworthiness, kayaks take many shapes depending on their desired use, rowing craft are also popular for fishing, as a tender to a larger vessel, or as a competitive sport. Rowing shells are long and narrow, and are intended to convert as much of the rowers muscle power as possible into speed. The ratio of length of waterline to beam has much importance in marine mechanics, row boats or dinghies are oar powered, and generally restricted to protected waters. Rowboats are generally heavy craft compared to other has Sailing can be competitive, as in collegiate dinghy racing. Small sailboats are commonly made from fiberglass, and will have wood, aluminum, or carbon-fiber spars, and generally a sloop rig. Racing dinghies and skiffs tend to be lighter, have more sail area, daysailers tend to be wider across the beam and have greater accommodation space at the expense of speed. Freshwater fishing boats account for approximately 1/3 of all registered boats in the U. S. watersport Boats or skiboats are high-powered Go-Fast boats is designed for activities where a participant is towed behind the boat such as waterskiing and parasailing. Variations on the ubiqutous waterski include wakeboards, water-skiing, kneeboarding, inflatable towables, to some degree, the nature of these boating activities influences boat design. Waterski boats are intended to hold a course at an accurate speed with a flat wake for slalom skiing runs. Wakeboard boats run at speeds, and have various methods including ballast and negative lift foils to force the stern in the water, thereby creating a large. Saltwater fishing boats vary widely in length and are once again specialized for various species of fish, flats boats, for example, are used in protected, shallow waters, and have shallow draft. Sportfishing boats range from 25 to 80 feet or more, fishing boats in colder climates may have more space dedicated to cuddy cabins and wheelhouses, while boats in warmer climates are likely to be entirely open
8.
Trade unions in the Soviet Union
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By the Stalinist era of the 1930s, it was clear that the party and government made the rules and that the trade unions were not permitted to challenge them in any substantial way. They did, however, challenge aspects of mismanagement more successfully than they had under Stalin, by the time of the dissolution of the Soviet Union, the trade union system consisted of thirty unions organized by occupational branch. Including about 732,000 locals and 135 million members in 1984, the All-Union Central Council of Trade Unions served as an umbrella organization for the thirty branch unions and was by far the largest public organization in the Soviet Union. Soviet trade unions, headed by the All-Union Central Council of Trade Unions, traced their history back to the 1905 Russian Revolution, after the October Revolution later that year, some anarchist and Bolshevik trade unionists hoped that unions would manage industry. A strong factory committee movement had sprung up, from workers occupying workplaces or forcing their bosses into compliance with demands as the government would no longer protect them, however, as the Bolsheviks seized and consolidated power, this movement was ended by the nationalization of industries. With the Russian Civil War and the Bolshevik policy of war communism, the trade unions lost staff to government, party, and military organs. Government economic organs, like the All-Russian Council of the Economy, increasingly took the role in directing industry. The Bolsheviks communist party, the Russian Social Democratic Labour Party, exerted increasing control over trade unions, leon Trotsky, Nikolay Krestinsky and some others insisted on militarization of trade unions and actually turning them into part of the government apparatus. The Workers Opposition demanded that trade unions manage the economy through an All-Union Congress of Producers, after that congress, Vladimir Lenins saying that Trade Unions are a School of Communism became an indisputable slogan. In this respect, through the Western lens of a dichotomy of independent unions versus company unions and this resolution radically shifted the balance in the notion democratic centralism from democratic to centralism and helped lay the groundwork for Joseph Stalins future dictatorship. The head of the union council during the 1920s, Mikhail Tomsky, first was deposed. He was rehabilitated decades later under de-Stalinization, as such, unions were partners of management in attempting to promote labor discipline, worker morale, and productivity. Unions organized socialist emulation competitions and awarded prizes for fulfilling quotas, the newspaper Trud and the magazine Soviet Trade Unions were major media of the Soviet trade union system. The trade union system in the late Soviet Union consisted of thirty unions organized by occupational branch, including about 732,000 locals and 135 million members in 1984, unions encompassed almost all Soviet employees with the exception of some 4 to 5 million kolkhozniks. Enterprises employing twenty-five or more people had locals, and membership was compulsory, dues were about 1% of a persons salary. The All-Union Central Council of Trade Unions served as an organization for the thirty branch unions and was by far the largest public organization in the Soviet Union. Union membership influenced union operations only at the level, where an average of 60% of a unions central committee members were rank-and-file workers. After the Polish trade union movement, Solidarity, had achieved success in Poland
9.
Krylya Sovetov Moscow
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HC Krylya Sovetov was a professional ice hockey team based in Moscow, Russia. The team played in the top divisions of Soviet and Russian hockey, in 2008 the team was expelled from the Soviet Wings Sport Palace and a new team, MHC Krylya Sovetov was created. PHC Krylya Sovetov played at the Minor Arena and Vityaz Ice Palace in Podolsk until 2010, but after 2011 it was not able to continue to operate as a professional hockey club and withdrew from the championship on all levels. Krylya Sovetov Moscow was founded in 1947 by the Krylya Sovetov sports society that represented Soviet aircraft industry, during the Soviet era Krylya were among the strongest teams of the ice hockey championship. They were among the Soviet teams that participated in the 1970s-era Super Series tours of North America, in 2008, the owner of the Soviet Wings Sport Palace, the All-Russia Institute of Light Alloys (Russian, Всероссийский институт лёгких сплавов accused Krylya Sovetov of overdue rent payments. This led to the subsequent eviction of the team, after playing one season in Vysshaya Liga VILS team decided to change its affiliation to the Junior League. While PHC Krylya Sovetov failed to qualify for the VHL, a newly created independent league that was supposed to replace Vysshaya Liga. After the KHL president Alexander Medvedev interfered in the conflict the situation was settled, albeit due to financial hardship the club had to resign from the league in the next season. De facto Krylya ceased to exist as a team in 2011
10.
HC Spartak Moscow
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HC Spartak is a professional ice hockey team based in Moscow, Russia. They played in the Tarasov Division of the Kontinental Hockey League during the 2013–14 season, however, the team did not participate in the KHL league the 2014–15 season because of financial issues, but rejoined the league prior to the 2015–16 season. One of the sections of the Spartak Moscow sports club, HC Spartak Moscow was established in 1946 and they have won the Soviet Championship four times, and have also had European-level success in the Spengler Cup, which they have won five times. Unfortunately for its fans, the state of the team was becoming worse and worse since the beginning of 2006. After the season, a Russian businessman and huge Spartak fan, Vadim Melkov, after negotiations, the Government of Moscow agreed to cover all of team debts. Some preliminary agreements about team sale were achieved as well, however, Melkov died during the S7 Airlines plane crash of July 9,2006. All the deal proposals were cancelled, after a month of struggling to improve the financial situation, it was decided by Spartak management to disband the team for a year. On 13 January 2016, Russian fans threw two bananas on the ice after HC Spartak Moscow lost 4,1 in a KHL match at home to Medveščak Zagreb, for which the apparent target, Edwin Hedberg, played. The cameras also recorded the hooting from the stands during an episode with Hedberg on 35th minute of the match
11.
Traktor Chelyabinsk
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The Traktor Ice Hockey Club, also known as HC Traktor commonly Traktor Chelyabinsk, is a professional ice hockey team based in Chelyabinsk, Russia. They are members of the Kharlamov Division of the Kontinental Hockey League, founded in 1947 as a team of the Chelyabinsk Tractor Plant, Traktor have played for the Soviet and Russian championships since 1948. From 1948-1953 they were called Dzerzhinets and Avangard between 1954 and 1958, the current name was adopted starting with the 1958–59 season. Traktor played its first game in the top league on December 12,1948 against CDKA Moscow, viktor Shuvalov, a future star of Moscow clubs VVS and CSKA, led the team in scores during its first season in the championship. In 1955 Chelyabinsk reached the place for the first time. Between 1965 and 1968, Traktor played in the division of the Soviet hockey championships. The team returned to the first division in 1968, in 1973, Traktor played in the USSR Cup finals against the CSKA. Although Traktor led 2-0, they lost the game with a score of 2-5, Valery Belousov and Gennadi Tsygurov, who subsequently went on to become head coaches of the team, were among the players of that roster. Traktors performance greatly improved after Anatoly Kostryukov became the head coach. In the 1976-77 season Traktor won bronze in the Soviet hockey championships, at that time, Traktor produced several players who achieved international prominence. One of the best Soviet forwards of all times, Sergei Makarov, was born in Chelyabinsk, along his teammate, defenseman Sergei Starikov, he regularly played on the Soviet national team from the late 1970s to the mid-1980s. Starikov and Makarov each won over 10 international tournaments with Team USSR, makarovs older brother Nikolai was also one of the best Soviet defensemen and played several times in various international competitions. Vyacheslav Bykov, a member of the Soviet national team and later the head coach of Team Russia. Traktors goaltender, Sergei Mylnikov, was named the best goaltender of the Soviet championship. He was the Soviet team starting goalie at the 1987 Canada Cup and his son played several seasons for Traktor as a goaltender as well. In the early 1990s, Traktor twice finished third in the International Hockey League under head coach Valery Belousov, a group of Traktor players, including Sergei Gomolyako, Valeri Karpov, Igor Varitsky, Ravil Gusmanov and others, appeared on Team Russia at several world championships. During the late 1990s ice hockey in Chelyabinsk entered a period of decline, in 1998 Traktor was relegated to the Vysshaya Liga and was replaced in its role as the major hockey team of Chelyabinsk by Mechel. The team found its way back to the only in 2006
12.
HC Dynamo Moscow
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HC Dynamo Moscow is a Russian professional ice hockey club based in Moscow. They are members of the Tarasov Division in the Kontinental Hockey League and it won the first Soviet hockey championship in 1946–47 beating Spartak Moscow in the finals. Helmed by Arkady Chernyshev during the first decades of their history Dynamo established themselves as one of the top teams of the Soviet hockey league, throughout the Soviet era Dynamo was among the top 3 teams almost every season winning five championships and three USSR Cups. The last years of the Soviet hockey championship and the beginning of the IHL period were marked with Dynamo winning fours seasons in a row, in 2010, Dynamo Moscow was merged with HC MVD, a KHL team from Balashikha owned by the Ministry of Internal Affairs. The team continued the history of the Dynamo club, with the big part of roster, players Builders The Dynamo Moscow honored twenty five players and one coach, in their history. Notes 1 Russian clubs tend to hang a banner of honor with a jersey number. Dynamo Sports Club HC Dynamo Facebook Moscow Official website History of HC Dynamo Moscow
13.
HC CSKA Moscow
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HC CSKA Moscow is a Russian ice hockey club that plays in the Kontinental Hockey League. It is referred to in the West as Central Red Army or the Red Army Team for its past affiliation with the Soviet Army, HC CSKA Moscow won more Soviet championships and European cups than any other team in history. It is owned by Russias largest oil company, Rosneft, which is in turn majority-owned by the Russian government, the club was founded in 1946 as CDKA. It was known as CDSA from 1952 –1954, as CSK MO from 1955 –1959, CSKA won 32 Soviet regular season championships during the Soviet Leagues 46-year existence, far and away the most in the leagues history, no other team won more than five. This included all but six from 1955 to 1989 and 13 in a row from 1977 to 1989, by comparison, no NHL team has won more than five Stanley Cups in a row since the NHL took de facto control of the trophy in 1926. CSKA was just as dominant in the European Cup and they won all but two titles from 1969 to 1990, including 13 in a row from 1978 to 1990. The teams first coach was Anatoli Tarasov, who would become famous as the coach of the Soviet national team. Tarasov coached the Red Army Team, either alone or with co-coaches, the teams greatest run came under Viktor Tikhonov, who was coach from 1977 to 1996—serving for most of that time as coach of the national team. The Red Army Team was able to pull off such a run of dominance because during the Soviet era. Taking full advantage of the fact that all able-bodied Soviet males had to serve in the military, by the late 1980s, however, the long run of Red Army dominance caused a significant dropoff in attendance throughout the league. One of the most feared lines in history was the KLM Line of the 1980s. The name came from the last names of the three players, Vladimir Krutov, Igor Larionov, and Sergei Makarov, together with defensemen Viacheslav Fetisov and Alexei Kasatonov, they were known as the Green Unit because they wore green jerseys in practice. The five-man unit formed a dominant force in European hockey throughout the decade, all five players were later permitted to go to the NHL in 1989, with mixed results. Not surprisingly, discipline was strict, especially under Tikhonov. His players practiced for as many as 11 months a year, however, became less restrictive after the collapse of the Soviet Union. At the IIHF Centennial All-Star Team, out of 6 players selected 4 players once played at CSKA Moscow, CSKA played 36 games against NHL teams from 1975 to 1991 and finished with a record of 26 wins,8 losses, and 2 ties. 34 of these games were played in Super Series, including the tour of North America in 1975/1976, the Super Series also introduced eventual Hockey Hall of Fame goaltender Vladislav Tretiak of the CSKA squad to North American ice hockey fans. On New Years Eve 1975, CSKA played the Montreal Canadiens, the game ended with a 3–3 draw, but was widely hailed as one of the greatest games ever played
14.
Sports school
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A sports school is a type of educational institution for children that originated in the Soviet Union. Sports schools were the basis of the system of physical culture. The system of schools was founded in the 1930s. In 1934, Young Pioneers Stadium was built in Moscow, the first specialized sports extracurricular institution in the USSR, in the same year the first childrens collective was established by Dynamo sports society, this was a prototype of sports schools by sports societies. By the 1940s dozens of schools functioned in the USSR by Dynamo sports society, Spartak sports society, CDKA, sports societies of Trade Unions, OSOAVIAKHIM and in the system of education. After the Great Patriotic War, sports schools were reorganized, transferred from the jurisdiction of sports societies to that of the system of education. After the USSR joined the Olympic Movement in 1951, Specialized Children and Youth Schools of the Olympic Reserve appeared, the number of such sports schools grew, as did the number of sports disciplines within sports schools. They included not only Olympic sports, but also national sports disciplines as well as tourism, orienteering, as an alternative there is also Complex Specialized Children and Youth School of Olympic Reserve. Aside of regular schools and specialized schools of Olympic Reserve. A number of Olympic Reserve schools are boarding schools. Children live, study and receive advanced sports training there, Sports boarding schools can be either one-sport-oriented or multisports. In those schools children spend most of their time off studying practicing sports or perfecting certain skills, one of the advantages is access to high-level professional coaching for children from remote villages and towns while having relatively cheap boarding, meals and education. Sports boarding schools provide the best sports training possible, Sports schools were compatible with the administrative division of the country, there were District, City, Oblast, Central, Republican sports schools. In accordance with specifics of different sports disciplines, the age of children, term of study in each group was one to two years, with different sports normatives applied in each year. By 1971 there were 3,813 sports schools in the USSR, with some 1.3 million children and youth training there. These included 2,434 schools with one million attendees under the jurisdiction of the system of education and 1,245 schools with 340,000 attendees functioning in the system of sports societies, and by 1991, some 6,000 sports schools functioned in the USSR. Sports schools, especially the Olympic reserve ones have been in the spotlight of several related to child abuse. In their strive to get the best out of children, a lot of coaches resort to verbal abuse as well as severe, the situation is even worse in sports boarding schools where parents exercise little control and children are fully under the coaches authority
15.
Russian Empire
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The Russian Empire was a state that existed from 1721 until it was overthrown by the short-lived February Revolution in 1917. One of the largest empires in history, stretching over three continents, the Russian Empire was surpassed in landmass only by the British and Mongol empires. The rise of the Russian Empire happened in association with the decline of neighboring powers, the Swedish Empire, the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth, Persia. It played a role in 1812–14 in defeating Napoleons ambitions to control Europe. The House of Romanov ruled the Russian Empire from 1721 until 1762, and its German-descended cadet branch, with 125.6 million subjects registered by the 1897 census, it had the third-largest population in the world at the time, after Qing China and India. Like all empires, it included a large disparity in terms of economics, ethnicity, there were numerous dissident elements, who launched numerous rebellions and assassination attempts, they were closely watched by the secret police, with thousands exiled to Siberia. Economically, the empire had an agricultural base, with low productivity on large estates worked by serfs. The economy slowly industrialized with the help of foreign investments in railways, the land was ruled by a nobility from the 10th through the 17th centuries, and subsequently by an emperor. Tsar Ivan III laid the groundwork for the empire that later emerged and he tripled the territory of his state, ended the dominance of the Golden Horde, renovated the Moscow Kremlin, and laid the foundations of the Russian state. Tsar Peter the Great fought numerous wars and expanded an already huge empire into a major European power, Catherine the Great presided over a golden age. She expanded the state by conquest, colonization and diplomacy, continuing Peter the Greats policy of modernisation along West European lines, Tsar Alexander II promoted numerous reforms, most dramatically the emancipation of all 23 million serfs in 1861. His policy in Eastern Europe involved protecting the Orthodox Christians under the rule of the Ottoman Empire and that connection by 1914 led to Russias entry into the First World War on the side of France, Britain, and Serbia, against the German, Austrian and Ottoman empires. The Russian Empire functioned as a monarchy until the Revolution of 1905. The empire collapsed during the February Revolution of 1917, largely as a result of failures in its participation in the First World War. Perhaps the latter was done to make Europe recognize Russia as more of a European country, Poland was divided in the 1790-1815 era, with much of the land and population going to Russia. Most of the 19th century growth came from adding territory in Asia, Peter I the Great introduced autocracy in Russia and played a major role in introducing his country to the European state system. However, this vast land had a population of 14 million, grain yields trailed behind those of agriculture in the West, compelling nearly the entire population to farm. Only a small percentage lived in towns, the class of kholops, close to the one of slavery, remained a major institution in Russia until 1723, when Peter I converted household kholops into house serfs, thus including them in poll taxation
16.
Imperial Russian Army
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The Imperial Russian Army was the land armed force of the Russian Empire, active from around 1721 to the Russian Revolution of 1917. In the early 1850s, the Russian army consisted of more than 900,000 regular soldiers, the last living veteran of the Russian Imperial Army was the Ukrainian supercentenarian Mikhail Krichevsky, who died in 2008. Russian tsars before Peter maintained professional hereditary musketeer corps, known as streltsy and these were originally raised by Tsar Ivan IV, originally an effective force, they had become highly unreliable and undisciplined. In times of war the forces were augmented by peasants. There were different kinds of regiments, such as regulars, dragoons, in 1631, the Russians created two regular regiments in Moscow. During the Russo-Polish War of 1632–1634, six regular regiments, one reiter regiment. Initially, they recruited children of the boyars and streltsy, volunteers, Cossacks. After the war with Poland, all of the regiments were disbanded, during another Russo-Polish War, they were created again and became a principal force of the Russian army. Often, regular and dragoon regiments were manned with datochniye lyudi for lifelong military service, reiters were manned with small or landless gentry and boyars children and were paid with money for their service. More than a half of the officers were representatives from the gentry. In times of peace, some of the regiments were usually disbanded, in 1681, there were 33 regular regiments and 25 dragoon and reiter regiments. In the late 17th century, regiments of the new type represented more than a half of the Russian Army, Conscription in Russia was introduced by Peter I of Russia in December 1699, though reports say Peters father also used it. Conscription of peasants and townspeople was based on system, per settlement. Initially it was based on the number of households, later it was based on the population numbers, the term of service in the 18th century was for life. In 1793 it was reduced to 25 years, in 1834, it was reduced to 20 years plus five years in the reserve, and in 1855 to 12 years plus three years in the reserve. The history of the Russian army in this era was linked to the name of Russian General Alexander Suvorov, considered one of a few great generals in history who never lost a battle. From 1777 to 1783 Suvorov served in the Crimea and in the Caucasus, becoming a lieutenant-general in 1780, from 1787 to 1791 he again fought the Turks during the Russo-Turkish War of 1787–1792 and won many victories. Suvorovs leadership also played a key role in a Russian victory over the Poles during the Kościuszko Uprising, furthermore, many lower-level officers were poorly trained and had difficulty getting their men to perform the sometimes complex manoeuvres required in a battle
17.
Saint Petersburg
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Saint Petersburg is Russias second-largest city after Moscow, with five million inhabitants in 2012, and an important Russian port on the Baltic Sea. It is politically incorporated as a federal subject, situated on the Neva River, at the head of the Gulf of Finland on the Baltic Sea, it was founded by Tsar Peter the Great on May 271703. In 1914, the name was changed from Saint Petersburg to Petrograd, in 1924 to Leningrad, between 1713 and 1728 and 1732–1918, Saint Petersburg was the capital of imperial Russia. In 1918, the government bodies moved to Moscow. Saint Petersburg is one of the cities of Russia, as well as its cultural capital. The Historic Centre of Saint Petersburg and Related Groups of Monuments constitute a UNESCO World Heritage Site, Saint Petersburg is home to The Hermitage, one of the largest art museums in the world. A large number of consulates, international corporations, banks. Swedish colonists built Nyenskans, a fortress, at the mouth of the Neva River in 1611, in a then called Ingermanland. A small town called Nyen grew up around it, Peter the Great was interested in seafaring and maritime affairs, and he intended to have Russia gain a seaport in order to be able to trade with other maritime nations. He needed a better seaport than Arkhangelsk, which was on the White Sea to the north, on May 1703121703, during the Great Northern War, Peter the Great captured Nyenskans, and soon replaced the fortress. On May 271703, closer to the estuary 5 km inland from the gulf), on Zayachy Island, he laid down the Peter and Paul Fortress, which became the first brick and stone building of the new city. The city was built by conscripted peasants from all over Russia, tens of thousands of serfs died building the city. Later, the city became the centre of the Saint Petersburg Governorate, Peter moved the capital from Moscow to Saint Petersburg in 1712,9 years before the Treaty of Nystad of 1721 ended the war, he referred to Saint Petersburg as the capital as early as 1704. During its first few years, the city developed around Trinity Square on the bank of the Neva, near the Peter. However, Saint Petersburg soon started to be built out according to a plan, by 1716 the Swiss Italian Domenico Trezzini had elaborated a project whereby the city centre would be located on Vasilyevsky Island and shaped by a rectangular grid of canals. The project was not completed, but is evident in the layout of the streets, in 1716, Peter the Great appointed French Jean-Baptiste Alexandre Le Blond as the chief architect of Saint Petersburg. In 1724 the Academy of Sciences, University and Academic Gymnasium were established in Saint Petersburg by Peter the Great, in 1725, Peter died at the age of fifty-two. His endeavours to modernize Russia had met opposition from the Russian nobility—resulting in several attempts on his life
18.
Moscow
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Moscow is the capital and most populous city of Russia, with 13.2 million residents within the city limits and 17.8 million within the urban area. Moscow has the status of a Russian federal city, Moscow is a major political, economic, cultural, and scientific center of Russia and Eastern Europe, as well as the largest city entirely on the European continent. Moscow is the northernmost and coldest megacity and metropolis on Earth and it is home to the Ostankino Tower, the tallest free standing structure in Europe, the Federation Tower, the tallest skyscraper in Europe, and the Moscow International Business Center. Moscow is situated on the Moskva River in the Central Federal District of European Russia, the city is well known for its architecture, particularly its historic buildings such as Saint Basils Cathedral with its brightly colored domes. Moscow is the seat of power of the Government of Russia, being the site of the Moscow Kremlin, the Moscow Kremlin and Red Square are also one of several World Heritage Sites in the city. Both chambers of the Russian parliament also sit in the city and it is recognized as one of the citys landmarks due to the rich architecture of its 200 stations. In old Russian the word also meant a church administrative district. The demonym for a Moscow resident is москвич for male or москвичка for female, the name of the city is thought to be derived from the name of the Moskva River. There have been proposed several theories of the origin of the name of the river and its cognates include Russian, музга, muzga pool, puddle, Lithuanian, mazgoti and Latvian, mazgāt to wash, Sanskrit, majjati to drown, Latin, mergō to dip, immerse. There exist as well similar place names in Poland like Mozgawa, the original Old Russian form of the name is reconstructed as *Москы, *Mosky, hence it was one of a few Slavic ū-stem nouns. From the latter forms came the modern Russian name Москва, Moskva, in a similar manner the Latin name Moscovia has been formed, later it became a colloquial name for Russia used in Western Europe in the 16th–17th centuries. From it as well came English Muscovy, various other theories, having little or no scientific ground, are now largely rejected by contemporary linguists. The surface similarity of the name Russia with Rosh, an obscure biblical tribe or country, the oldest evidence of humans on the territory of Moscow dates from the Neolithic. Within the modern bounds of the city other late evidence was discovered, on the territory of the Kremlin, Sparrow Hills, Setun River and Kuntsevskiy forest park, etc. The earliest East Slavic tribes recorded as having expanded to the upper Volga in the 9th to 10th centuries are the Vyatichi and Krivichi, the Moskva River was incorporated as part of Rostov-Suzdal into the Kievan Rus in the 11th century. By AD1100, a settlement had appeared on the mouth of the Neglinnaya River. The first known reference to Moscow dates from 1147 as a place of Yuri Dolgoruky. At the time it was a town on the western border of Vladimir-Suzdal Principality
19.
Kiev
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Kiev or Kyiv is the capital and largest city of Ukraine, located in the north central part of the country on the Dnieper River. The population in July 2015 was 2,887,974, Kiev is an important industrial, scientific, educational, and cultural centre of Eastern Europe. It is home to many industries, higher education institutions. The city has an infrastructure and highly developed system of public transport. The citys name is said to derive from the name of Kyi, during its history, Kiev, one of the oldest cities in Eastern Europe, passed through several stages of great prominence and relative obscurity. The city probably existed as a centre as early as the 5th century. A Slavic settlement on the trade route between Scandinavia and Constantinople, Kiev was a tributary of the Khazars, until seized by the Varangians in the mid-9th century. Under Varangian rule, the city became a capital of the Kievan Rus, completely destroyed during the Mongol invasion in 1240, the city lost most of its influence for the centuries to come. It was a capital of marginal importance in the outskirts of the territories controlled by its powerful neighbours, first the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, followed by Poland. The city prospered again during the Russian Empires Industrial Revolution in the late 19th century, in 1917, after the Ukrainian National Republic declared independence from the Russian Empire, Kiev became its capital. From 1919 Kiev was an important center of the Armed Forces of South Russia and was controlled by the White Army. From 1921 onwards Kiev was a city of the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic, which was proclaimed by the Red Army, during World War II, the city again suffered significant damage, but quickly recovered in the post-war years, remaining the third largest city of the Soviet Union. During the countrys transformation to an economy and electoral democracy. Kievs armament-dependent industrial output fell after the Soviet collapse, adversely affecting science, Kiev emerged as the most pro-Western region of Ukraine where parties advocating tighter integration with the European Union dominate during elections. As a prominent city with a history, its English name was subject to gradual evolution. The early English spelling was derived from Old East Slavic form Kyjev, the name is associated with that of Kyi, the legendary eponymous founder of the city. Early English sources use various names, including Kiou, Kiow, Kiew, on one of the oldest English maps of the region, Russiae, Moscoviae et Tartariae published by Ortelius the name of the city is spelled Kiou. On the 1650 map by Guillaume de Beauplan, the name of the city is Kiiow, in the book Travels, by Joseph Marshall, the city is referred to as Kiovia
20.
Great Soviet Encyclopedia
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The Great Soviet Encyclopedia is one of the largest Russian-language encyclopedias. Published by the Soviet state from 1926 to 1990, and again since 2002 by Russia, the GSE claimed to be the first Marxist-Leninist general-purpose encyclopedia. The idea of the Great Soviet Encyclopedia emerged in 1923 on the initiative of Otto Schmidt, also involved was Anatoly Lunacharsky, Commissar of Enlightenment, who had previously been involved with a proposal by Alexander Bogdanov and Maxim Gorky to produce a Workers Encyclopedia. The first edition of 65 volumes was published during 1926–1947, the editor being Otto Schmidt. The second edition of 50 volumes was published in 1950–1958, chief editors, Sergei Vavilov and Boris Vvedensky, the third edition of 1969–1978 contains 30 volumes. Volume 24 is in two books, one being a book about the USSR, all with about 21 million words. In the third edition, much attention was paid to the problems of natural sciences, physical and chemical sciences. From 1957 to 1990, the Yearbook of the Great Soviet Encyclopedia was released annually with up-to-date articles about the Soviet Union, the first online edition, an exact replica of text and graphics of the third edition, was published by Rubricon. com in 2000. With exhaustive completeness it must show the superiority of socialist culture over the culture of the capitalist world, operating on Marxist-Leninist theory, the encyclopedia should give a party criticism of contemporary bourgeois tendencies in various provinces of science and technics. The third edition of the GSE subsequently expanded on the role of education, Education is essential to preparing for life and it is the basic means by which people come to know and acquire culture, and it is the foundation of cultures development. A. Vvedensky stating their compliance with the 1949 decree of the Council of Ministers and they are working under a government directive that orders them to orient their encyclopedia as sharply as a political tract. The encyclopedia was planned to provide the intellectual underpinning for the Soviet world offensive in the duel for mens minds. The Soviet government ordered it as a propaganda weapon. And the government attaches such importance to its political role that its board of editors is chosen by and is only to the high Council of Ministers itself. The third edition was translated and published into English in 31 volumes between 1974 and 1983 by Macmillan Publishers, not all entries were translated into English, these are indicated in the index. Articles from the English edition are available online by TheFreeDictionary. com. The third edition was translated into Greek and published in 34 volumes between 1977 and 1983, all articles that were related to Greece or Greek history, culture and society were expanded and hundreds of new ones were written especially for the Greek edition. Thus the encyclopedia contains, for example, both the Russian entry on Greece as well as a larger one prepared by Greek contributors
21.
Peter Lesgaft
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Peter Franzevich Lesgaft was a Russian teacher, anatomist, physician and social reformer. He was the founder of the system of physical education and medical-pedagogical control in physical training. Lesgaft National State University of Physical Education, Sport and Health in St. Petersburg is named after him, unity and integrity of all organs in human body was the basis of Peter Lesgaft system of the pointed exercises for both physical development and intellectual, moral and aesthetic education. Outdoor games were his favorite means in both development and formation of character of a child. Peter Lesgaft was born on 21 September 1837 in Sankt-Petersburg, the son of a jeweler of German descent. In 1861 he graduated from Imperial Medical-Surgical Academy in St. Petersburg, in 1869 he became a professor at the University of Kazan, but soon was barred from teaching for his outspoken criticism of the unscientific methods used. In 1872 he became consultant on therapeutic gymnastics in the practice of Dr. Berglindt. In 1872-1874 he supervised a group of Russian women for the first time allowed to employment in the Imperial Medical-Surgical Academy and he also became known for publication of a descriptive history of sport in Europe and ancient Greece and an article on naturalistic gymnastics. As a result, he was put in charge of the training of military cadets. In 1875 he was sponsored by the Russian Military Ministry to spend two summers in Western Europe, studying the systems of physical education, during that time he visited 26 cities in 13 European countries. He carefully studied British system visiting English public schools, the Central Army Gymnastics School at Aldershot, in 1877, he published ‘‘Relationship of Anatomy to Physical Education and ‘‘The Major Purpose of Physical Education in Schools. He was able to organizing courses for physical education instructors for the military academies — until then non-existent, in 1893 Peter Lesgaft organized Biological laboratory which in 1918 was transformed into P. F. Lesgaft Institute of Natural Science. Peter Lesgaft short biography and photo The Founder of Russian Physical Education By James Riordan University of Bradford, England
22.
Riga
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Riga is the capital and the largest city of Latvia. With 696,593 inhabitants, Riga is the largest city in the Baltic states, the city lies on the Gulf of Riga, at the mouth of the Daugava. Rigas territory covers 307.17 square kilometres and lies one and ten metres above sea level, on a flat and sandy plain. Riga was founded in 1201 and is a former Hanseatic League member, Rigas historical centre is a UNESCO World Heritage Site, noted for its Art Nouveau/Jugendstil architecture and 19th century wooden architecture. Riga was the European Capital of Culture during 2014, along with Umeå in Sweden, Riga hosted the 2006 NATO Summit, the Eurovision Song Contest 2003, and the 2006 IIHF Mens World Ice Hockey Championships. It is home to the European Unions office of European Regulators for Electronic Communications, Riga is served by Riga International Airport, the largest airport in the Baltic states. Riga is a member of Eurocities, the Union of the Baltic Cities, another theory could be that Riga was named after Riege, the German name for the River Rīdzene, a tributary of the Daugava. The river Daugava has been a trade route since antiquity, part of the Vikings Dvina-Dnieper navigation route to Byzantium. A sheltered natural harbour 15 km upriver from the mouth of the Daugava — the site of todays Riga — has been recorded, as Duna Urbs and it was settled by the Livs, an ancient Finnic tribe. Riga began to develop as a centre of Viking trade during the early Middle Ages, Rigas inhabitants occupied themselves mainly with fishing, animal husbandry, and trading, later developing crafts. German traders began visiting Riga, establishing a nearby outpost in 1158, along with German traders also arrived the monk Meinhard of Segeberg to convert the Livonian pagans to Christianity. Catholic and Orthodox Christianity had already arrived in Latvia more than a century earlier, Meinhard settled among the Livs, building a castle and church at Ikšķile, upstream from Riga, and established his bishopric there. The Livs, however, continued to practice paganism and Meinhard died in Ikšķile in 1196, in 1198, the Bishop Berthold arrived with a contingent of crusaders and commenced a campaign of forced Christianization. Berthold was killed soon afterwards and his forces defeated, pope Innocent III issued a bull declaring a crusade against the Livonians. Bishop Albert was proclaimed Bishop of Livonia by his uncle Hartwig of Uthlede, Prince-Archbishop of Bremen, Albert landed in Riga in 1200 with 23 ships and 500 Westphalian crusaders. In 1201, he transferred the seat of the Livonian bishopric from Ikšķile to Riga, the year 1201 also marked the first arrival of German merchants in Novgorod, via the Dvina. To defend territory and trade, Albert established the Order of Livonian Brothers of the Sword in 1202, open to nobles, in 1207, Albert started on fortification of the town. Emperor Philip invested Albert with Livonia as a fief and principality of the Holy Roman Empire, until then, it had been customary for crusaders to serve for a year and then return home
23.
Olympic Congress
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An Olympic Congress is a large gathering of representatives from the different constituencies of the Olympic Movement, organised by the International Olympic Committee. As detailed in chapter 1, rule 4 of the Olympic Charter, Olympic Congresses are not regular events in the IOC’s calendar. As the Olympic Charter states, The Olympic Congress gathers representatives of the constituents of the Olympic Movement, as the role of an Olympic Congress is consultative, all recommendations from the Congress must be submitted to the IOC Session for formal adoption. The first Olympic Congress was held in Paris, France in 1894 and it was this Congress which founded and established the IOC and laid the groundwork for its statutes. The process of revival of the Olympic Games also began at the Paris Congress of 1894, after 1894, and until 1930, there were eight Congresses covering various issues related to the burgeoning Olympic Movement. The last Congress before the Second World War was held in Berlin in 1930, after this time, there was then an interruption of more than forty years until the 10th Olympic Congress was held in Varna, Bulgaria in 1973. Successive Congresses were held in Baden-Baden, Germany in 1981 and then in Paris, but the Congresses, especially those after the Second World War, were the catalyst for some significant developments in the Olympic Movement. At the heart of the debate in Varna was the issue of amateurism, interestingly this topic featured in the discussions of nearly all the Congresses prior to 1930. At the Congress in Varna the IOC Eligibility Commission was tasked with examining the issue of eligibility, the Commission’s work was brought to fruition the following year at the 75th IOC Session when delegates adopted a new eligibility rule. The new rule authorised financial and material assistance for elite sportsmen and women, the concerns of the athletes took centre place at the Congress in Baden-Baden. This was the first time that played a leading role in a Congress. This Congress paved the way for the creation of the IOC Athlete’s Commission, the primary concern of the Congress in Paris was the protection of the environment. The delegates focused on developing measures to optimise the Olympic Movement’s contribution to preserving the environment, the 1994 Congress was the first time members of the media were invited to speak and had an entire discussion theme devoted to their concerns. It was not surprising that this Congress was later entitled The Congress of Unity as the event was a testimony to the relationship among the various constituents of the Olympic Family. In 2005, the IOC President Jacques Rogge called for the 13th Olympic Congress to be scheduled for 2009, on 8 February 2006, Copenhagen, Denmark was chosen as the host of the 13th Olympic Congress defeating Cairo, Egypt by 59 votes to 40. With this result, no Olympic Congress has ever taken place outside of Europe, the nine original candidate cities were, Athens, Busan, Cairo, Copenhagen, Lausanne, Mexico City, Riga, Taipei and Singapore. Athens was eliminated in the first round of voting and Riga in the second, Singapore lost a tie-breaker with Taipei in round three. Taipei was eliminated in the round and Busan in the fifth round
24.
International Olympic Committee
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The International Olympic Committee is the supreme authority of the worldwide Olympic movement. It is an international, non-profit, non-governmental organization based in Lausanne and its mission is enshrined in the Olympic Charter, to support the development of competitive sport by ethical and environmentally sustainable means. The IOC was created by Pierre de Coubertin, on 23 June 1894 with Demetrios Vikelas as its first president, today its membership consists of 100 active members,32 honorary members, and 1 honour member. The IOC is the authority of the worldwide modern Olympic movement. The IOC organises the modern Olympic Games and Youth Olympic Games, held in summer and winter, the first Summer Olympics organised by the IOC was held in Athens, Greece, in 1896, the first Winter Olympics was in Chamonix, France, in 1924. Until 1992, both Summer and Winter Olympics were held in the same year, the first Summer Youth Olympics were in Singapore in 2010 and the first Winter Youth Olympics were held in Innsbruck in 2012. In 2009, the UN General Assembly granted the IOC Permanent Observer status and this decision enables the IOC to be directly involved in the UN Agenda and to attend UN General Assembly meetings where it can take the floor. This has provided the possibility to promote sport at a new level, during each proclamation at the Olympics, announcers speak in different languages, French is always spoken first followed by an English translation and the dominant language of the host nation. The stated mission of the International Olympic Committee is to promote Olympic throughout the world and it is the IOC’s supreme organ and its decisions are final. Extraordinary Sessions may be convened by the President or upon the written request of at least one third of the members, among others, the powers of the Session are, To adopt or amend the Olympic Charter. To elect the members of the IOC, the Honorary President, to elect the President, the Vice-Presidents and all other members of the IOC Executive Board. To elect the host city of the Olympic Games, the Olympic Laurel is awarded to individuals for promoting education, culture, development, and peace through sport. For most of its existence, the IOC was controlled by members who were selected by other members, countries that had hosted the Games were allowed two members. When named, they did not become the representatives of their countries to the IOC. The membership of IOC members ceases in the circumstances, Resignation. Non re-election, any IOC member ceases to be a member without further formality if they are not re-elected, age limit, any IOC member ceases to be a member at the end of the calendar year during which they reach the age of 80. Failure to attend Sessions or take part in IOC work for two consecutive years. Transfer of domicile or of main center of interests to an other than the country which was theirs at the time of their election
25.
October Revolution
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It took place with an armed insurrection in Petrograd on 25 October 1917. During this time, urban workers began to organize into councils wherein revolutionaries criticized the provisional government and this immediately initiated the establishment of the Russian Socialist Federative Soviet Republic, the worlds first self-proclaimed socialist state. The revolution was led by the Bolsheviks, who used their influence in the Petrograd Soviet to organize the armed forces, Bolshevik Red Guards forces under the Military Revolutionary Committee began the takeover of government buildings on 24 October 1917. The following day, the Winter Palace, was captured, the long-awaited Constituent Assembly elections were held on 12 November 1917. The Bolsheviks only won 175 seats in the 715-seat legislative body, coming in second behind the Socialist Revolutionary party, the Constituent Assembly was to first meet on 28 November 1917, but its convocation was delayed until 5 January 1918 by the Bolsheviks. On its first and only day in session, the body rejected Soviet decrees on peace and land, as the revolution was not universally recognized, there followed the struggles of the Russian Civil War and the creation of the Soviet Union in 1922. At first, the event was referred to as the October coup or the Uprising of 25th, in Russian, however, переворот has a similar meaning to revolution and also means upheaval or overturn, so coup is not necessarily the correct translation. With time, the term October Revolution came into use and it is also known as the November Revolution having occurred in November according to the Gregorian Calendar. The Great October Socialist Revolution was the name for the October Revolution in the Soviet Union after the 10th anniversary of the Revolution in 1927. The February Revolution had toppled Tsar Nicolas II of Russia, however, the provisional government was weak and riven by internal dissension. It continued to wage World War I, which became increasingly unpopular, a nationwide crisis developed in Russia, affecting social, economic, and political relations. Disorder in industry and transport had intensified, and difficulties in obtaining provisions had increased, gross industrial production in 1917 had decreased by over 36% from what it had been in 1914. In the autumn, as much as 50% of all enterprises were closed down in the Urals, the Donbas, at the same time, the cost of living increased sharply. Real wages fell about 50% from what they had been in 1913, russias national debt in October 1917 had risen to 50 billion rubles. Of this, debts to foreign governments constituted more than 11 billion rubles, the country faced the threat of financial bankruptcy. In these months alone, more than a million took part in strikes. Workers established control over production and distribution in many factories and plants in a social revolution, by October 1917, there had been over 4,000 peasant uprisings against landowners. When the Provisional Government sent punitive detachments, it only enraged the peasants
26.
Council of People's Commissars
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The Council of Peoples Commissars was a government institution formed shortly after the October Revolution in 1917. Created in the Russian Republic, the council laid foundations in restructuring the country to form the Soviet Union and it evolved to become the highest government authority of executive power in the government of the Soviet Union. The chairman of council was thus the head of government. The constitution enabled the Sovnarkom to issue decrees carrying the force of law when the Congress was not in session. The Congress then routinely approved these decrees at its next session, when the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics was established in December 1922, the USSR Sovnarkom was modelled on the RSFSR Sovnarkom. It was transformed in 1946 into the Council of Ministers, the first council elected by the Second All-Russian Congress of Soviets was composed as follows. Upon the creation of the USSR in 1922, the Unions government was modelled after the first Sovnarkom, the Soviet republics retained their own governments which dealt with domestic matters. In 1946, the Sovnarkoms were transformed into the Council of Ministers at both all-Union and Union Republic level
27.
Spartak (sports society)
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Spartak is an international fitness and sports society that unites some countries of the former Soviet Union. It was founded in 1921 in Moscow as the Moscow Sports Circle by footballer Nikolai Starostin, in 1926 it came under the sponsorship of the food workers union. In 1934, it adopted the name of Spartak, after the ancient Roman slave, rebel and athlete Spartacus and it was dissolved in 1987 and reformed in 1991 as an international society among six nations of the former Soviet Union. Spartak was the first and the largest All-Union Voluntary Sports Society of workers of state trade, producers cooperation, light industry, civil aviation, education, culture, in 1936 Spartak organized and successfully conducted a sports parade at the Moscows Red Square. In 1960 the society was reorganized into the Voluntary Sport Society, there were 23,000 physical culture collectives in the society in 1975, that united 6.2 million people. There were 40 sports disciplines cultivated in the society in 1975, the society possessed 238 stadiums,89 swimming pools,1,800 sports halls,1,300 football grounds,2,600 sports camps,264 Children and Youth Sport Schools. In 1987 Spartak was abolished and all its assets were transferred back to trade unions, in 1991 the society was reorganized as an international. Currently the society has affiliation in six countries of the former Soviet Union, Russia, Ukraine, Belarus, Nikolai Starostin Semyon Privis Gennadiy Mikhalchuk Pyotr Sobolev Yevgeniy Arkhipov Vladimir Vekshin Nikolai Ozerov Anna Alyoshina VSS Spartak was awarded Order of Lenin
28.
Trudovye Rezervy
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Trudovye Rezervy — voluntary sport society of students of professional-technical schools in the USSR and later in post-Soviet countries. Founded on June 19th,1943 as an all-union voluntary sport society, in 19755,538 physical culture collectives by the educational institutions, i. e. more than 2.7 million people, belonged to the society. 44 sports disciplines were cultivated, the most popular being athletics, boxing, amateur wrestling, rowing, skiing, shooting, trudovye Rezervy had 18,000 sports constructions, including 39 stadiums,50 swimming pools and more than 3,000 sports halls
29.
Republics of the Soviet Union
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The Republics of the Soviet Union or the Union Republics of the Soviet Union were ethnically based proto-states that were subordinated directly to the Government of the Soviet Union. Article 81 of the Constitution stated that the rights of Union Republics shall be safeguarded by the USSR. In the final decades of its existence, the Soviet Union officially consisted of fifteen Soviet Socialist Republics, all of them, with the exception of the Russian Federation, had their own local party chapters of the All-Union Communist Party. In 1944, amendments to the All-Union Constitution allowed for branches of the Red Army for each Soviet Republic. They also allowed for Republic-level commissariats for foreign affairs and defense and this allowed for two Soviet Republics, Ukraine and Byelorussia, to join the United Nations General Assembly as founding members in 1945. All of the former Republics of the Union are now independent countries, however, most of the international community did not consider the Baltic countries to have legitimately been part of the USSR. Their position is supported by the European Union, the European Court of Human Rights, the United Nations Human Rights Council, in contrast, the Russian government and state officials maintain that the Soviet annexation of the Baltic states was legitimate. Constitutionally, the Soviet Union was a federation, in accordance with provisions present in the Constitution, each republic retained the right to secede from the USSR. Under the constitution adopted in 1936 and modified along the way until October 1977, along with the state administrative hierarchy, there existed a parallel structure of party organizations, which allowed the Politburo to exercise large amounts of control over the republics. State administrative organs took direction from the party organs, and appointments of all party. Each republic had its own set of state symbols, a flag, a coat of arms, and, with the exception of Russia until 1990. Every republic of the Soviet Union also was awarded with the Order of Lenin, number of the union republics of the USSR varied from 4 to 16. In majority of years and at the decades of its existence. The Soviet Union considered the initial annexation legal, but officially recognized their independence on September 6,1991, the Socialist Soviet Republic of Byelorussia, in winter of 1919 The Lithuanian–Byelorussian Soviet Socialist Republic was proclaimed in 1919 but fell very soon. The Persian Socialist Soviet Republic, in what is now Iran, the Turkestan Soviet Federative Republic was proclaimed in 1918 but did not survive to the founding of the USSR, becoming the short-lived Turkestan Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic of the RSFSR. When the Tuvan Peoples Republic joined the Soviet Union in 1944, it did not become a union republic, the leader of the Peoples Republic of Bulgaria, Todor Zhivkov, suggested in the early 1960s that the country should become a union republic, but the offer was rejected. During the Soviet–Afghan War, the Soviet Union proposed to annex the Northern Afghanistan as its 16th union republic in what was to become the Afghan Soviet Socialist Republic, though administratively part of their respective Union Republics, ASSRs were also established based on ethnic/cultural lines. Under Mikhail Gorbachev, openness and restructuring were intended to liberalise, however, they had a number of effects which caused the power of the republics to increase
30.
Karelo-Finnish Soviet Socialist Republic
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The Karelo-Finnish Soviet Socialist Republic, also called Soviet Karelia or simply known as Karelia was a republic of the Soviet Union. It existed from 1940 until it was part of the Russian SFSR in 1956 as the Karelian Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic. The Karelo-Finnish Soviet Socialist Republic was set up on March 31,1940 by merging the KASSR with the Finnish Democratic Republic. The entire Karelian population of the areas, about 422,000 people, was evacuated to Finland. In 1944, the Soviet Union recaptured the area, Soviet sovereignty was recognized by Finland in the Moscow Armistice and Paris Peace Treaty. The Finnish Karelians were evacuated to Finland again, in September 1944, the Karelian Isthmus with Vyborg was transferred from the Karelo-Finnish SSR to the Leningrad Oblast of the RSFSR, but Ladoga Karelia remained a part of the republic. On July 16,1956, the republic was incorporated into the Russian SFSR as the Karelian Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic, the abolition of the Karelian SSR in 1956 was the only case in the history of the USSR of merging a member republic of the USSR into another republic. In the waning days of the USSR, the Karelian ASSR became the Republic of Karelia, the chairman of the Karelo-Finnish Supreme Soviet was Finnish communist Otto Ville Kuusinen. In the republic there was also a separate Karelo-Finnish Communist Party led in the 1940s by G. N, yuri Andropov served for some years as the first secretary of the republics Komsomol branch, the Leninist Communist Youth League of the Karelo-Finnish Soviet Socialist Republic. Winter War Karelia Karelia Karelian question in Finnish politics Republics of the Soviet Union First Secretary of the Karelian Communist Party
31.
Felix Dzerzhinsky
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Felix Edmundovich Dzerzhinsky, nicknamed Iron Felix, was a Polish and Russian Bolshevik revolutionary and a Soviet statesman. His party pseudonyms were Yatsek, Yakub, Pereplyotchik, Franek, Astronom, Yuzef and he was a member of several revolutionary committees such as the Polish Revkom as well as several Russian and Soviet official positions. Dzerzhinsky is best known for establishing and developing the Soviet secret police forces, later he was a member of the Soviet government heading several commissariats, while being the chief of the Soviet secret police. The Cheka soon became notorious for mass executions, performed especially during the Red Terror. Felix Dzerzhinsky was born on 11 September 1877 at the Dzerzhinovo family estate, about 15 km away from a town of Ivyanets, in the Minsk Region. His aristocratic family belonged to the former Polish szlachta, of the Sulima coat of arms, as a child, before taking to Marxist ideology, Felix considered becoming a Jesuit priest. His sister Wanda died at the age of 12, when she was shot with a hunting rifle on the family estate by one of the brothers. At the time of the incident, there were conflicting claims as to whether Felix or his brother Stanisław was responsible for the accident. In 1868, after a stint in Kherson gymnasium, he worked as a gymnasium teacher of physics and mathematics at the gymnasiums of Taganrog. In 1875 Edmund Dzierżyński retired due to conditions and moved with his family to his estate near Ivyanets and Rakaw. In 1882 Felixs father died from tuberculosis, as a youngster Dzerzhinsky became fluent in four languages, Polish, Russian, Yiddish, and Latin. He attended the Wilno gymnasium from 1887 to 1895, one of the older students at this gymnasium was his future arch-enemy, Józef Piłsudski. Years later, as Marshal of Poland, Piłsudski recalled that Dzerzhinsky, distinguished himself as a student with delicacy and modesty. He was rather tall, thin and demure, making the impression of an ascetic with the face of an icon, tormented or not, this is an issue history will clarify, in any case this person did not know how to lie. School documents show that Dzerzhinsky attended his first year in school twice, two months before graduating, Dzerzhinsky was expelled from the gymnasium for revolutionary activity. He had joined a Marxist group, the Union of Workers, in late April 1896, he was one of 15 delegates at the first congress of the Lithuanian Social Democratic Party. In 1897, he attended the congress of the LSDP. On 18 March 1897, he was sent to Kaunas, to advantage of the arrest of the Polish Socialist Party branch
32.
Burevestnik (sports society)
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Burevestnik was the All-Union Voluntary Sports Society of students and teachers of the most part of high schools and universities in the USSR, established in 1957. Since 1959 the society was a member of the International University Sports Federation, in 1970 about 600 students sport clubs with more than 1.5 million athletes were members of the society. Educational institutions, in which the society operated, had 40 stadiums,1,250 artistic gymnastics halls,28 swimming pools and 550 sports camps. Nikolai Andrianov Tatyana Kazankina Sergei Kovalenko Gennadi Shatkov Nona Gaprindashvili Lyubov Kozyreva Mark Midler Aleksandr Anpilogov Lidia Skoblikova Alexander Medved Sport Flags of the USSR
33.
Vodnik (sports society)
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Vodnik was the All-Union Voluntary Sports Society of Trade Unions of the sea and river transport. Established in 1938, when two VSS, Moryak and Vympel, were combined, there were about 1,500 physical culture collectives in Vodnik in 1971, which were created in seaports, enterprises and educational institutions of the sea and river transport. These collectives united about 200,000 athletes, Vodnik had 26 stadiums,103 sports halls, five swimming pools. The present professional bandy club Vodnik Arkhangelsk used to be a part of the Vodnik Sports Society, leonid Geishtor Valentyn Mankin Sport Flags of the USSR
34.
Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic
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The Republic comprised sixteen autonomous republics, five autonomous oblasts, ten autonomous okrugs, six krais, and forty oblasts. Russians formed the largest ethnic group, the capital of the Russian SFSR was Moscow and the other major urban centers included Leningrad, Novosibirsk, Yekaterinburg, Nizhny Novgorod and Samara. The Russian Soviet Republic was proclaimed on November 7,1917 as a sovereign state, the first Constitution was adopted in 1918. In 1922 the Russian SFSR signed the Treaty on the Creation of the USSR, the economy of Russia became heavily industrialized, accounting for about two-thirds of the electricity produced in the USSR. It was, by 1961, the third largest producer of petroleum due to new discoveries in the Volga-Urals region and Siberia, trailing only the United States and Saudi Arabia. In 1974, there were 475 institutes of education in the republic providing education in 47 languages to some 23,941,000 students. A network of territorially organized public-health services provided health care, the effects of market policies led to the failure of many enterprises and total instability by 1990. On June 12,1990, the Congress of Peoples Deputies adopted the Declaration of State Sovereignty, on June 12,1991, Boris Yeltsin was elected the first President. On December 8,1991, heads of Russia, Ukraine, the agreement declared dissolution of the USSR by its founder states and established the Commonwealth of Independent States. On December 12, the agreement was ratified by the Russian Parliament, therefore Russian SFSR denounced the Treaty on the Creation of the USSR and de facto declared Russias independence from the USSR. On December 25,1991, following the resignation of Mikhail Gorbachev as president of the Soviet Union, on December 26,1991, the USSR was self-dissolved by the Soviet of Nationalities, which by that time was the only functioning house of the Supreme Soviet. After dissolution of the USSR, Russia declared that it assumed the rights and obligations of the dissolved central Soviet government, the new Russian constitution, adopted on December 12,1993 after a constitutional crisis, abolished the Soviet system of government in its entirety. Initially, the state did not have a name and wasnt recognized by neighboring countries for five months. Meanwhile, anti-Bolsheviks coined the mocking label Sovdepia for the nascent state of the Soviets of Workers, on January 25,1918 the third meeting of the All-Russian Congress of Soviets renamed the unrecognized state the Soviet Russian Republic. The Treaty of Brest-Litovsk was signed on March 3,1918, on July 10,1918, the Russian Constitution of 1918 renamed the country the Russian Socialist Federative Soviet Republic. By 1918, during the Russian Civil War, several states within the former Russian Empire seceded, internationally, in 1920, the RSFSR was recognized as an independent state only by Estonia, Finland, Latvia and Lithuania in the Treaty of Tartu and by the short-lived Irish Republic. On December 30,1922, with the creation of the Soviet Union, the final Soviet name for the republic, the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic, was adopted in the Soviet Constitution of 1936. By that time, Soviet Russia had gained roughly the same borders of the old Tsardom of Russia before the Great Northern War of 1700
35.
Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic
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The Ukrainian SSR was a founding member of the United Nations, although it was legally represented by the All-Union state in its affairs with countries outside of the Soviet Union. From the start, the city of Kharkiv served as the republics capital. However, in 1934, the seat of government was moved to the city of Kyiv. Geographically, the Ukrainian SSR was situated in Eastern Europe to the north of the Black Sea, bordered by the Soviet republics of Moldavia, Byelorussia, the Ukrainian SSRs border with Czechoslovakia formed the Soviet Unions western-most border point. According to the Soviet Census of 1989 the republic had a population of 51,706,746 inhabitants, the name Ukraine, derived from the Slavic word kraj, meaning land or border. It was first used to part of the territory of Kievan Rus in the 12th century. The name has been used in a variety of ways since the twelfth century, after the abdication of the tsar and the start of the process of the destruction of the Russian Empire many people in Ukraine wished to establish a Ukrainian Republic. During a period of war from 1917-23 many factions claiming themselves governments of the newly born republic were formed, each with supporters. The two most prominent of them were the government in Kyiv and the government in Kharkiv, the former being the Ukrainian Peoples Republic and the latter the Ukrainian Soviet Republic. This government of the Soviet Ukrainian Republic was founded on 24–25 December 1917, in its publications it names itself either the Republic of Soviets of Workers, Soldiers, and Peasants Deputies or the Ukrainian Peoples Republic of Soviets. The last session of the government took place in the city of Taganrog, in July 1918 the former members of the government formed the Communist Party of Ukraine, the constituent assembly of which took place in Moscow. On 10 March 1919, according to the 3rd Congress of Soviets in Ukraine the name of the state was changed to the Ukrainian Socialist Soviet Republic. After the ratification of the 1936 Soviet Constitution, the names of all Soviet republics were changed, transposing the second, during its existence, the Ukrainian SSR was commonly referred to as Ukraine or the Ukraine. On 24 August 1991, the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic declared independence, since the adoption of the Constitution of Ukraine in June 1996, the country became known simply as Ukraine, which is the name used to this day. After the Russian Revolution of 1917, several factions sought to create an independent Ukrainian state, the most popular faction was initially the local Socialist Revolutionary Party that composed the local government together with Federalists and Mensheviks. The Bolsheviks boycotted any government initiatives most of the time, instigating several armed riots in order to establish the Soviet power without any intent for consensus, immediately after the October Revolution in Petrograd, Bolsheviks instigated the Kiev Bolshevik Uprising to support the Revolution and secure Kyiv. Due to a lack of support from the local population and anti-revolutionary Central Rada, however. Most moved to Kharkiv and received the support of the eastern Ukrainian cities, later, this move was regarded as a mistake by some of the Peoples Commissars
36.
Byelorussian Soviet Socialist Republic
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To the west it bordered Poland. Within the Soviet Union, it bordered Lithuania and Latvian to the north, the Socialist Soviet Republic of Byelorussia was declared by the Bolsheviks on 1 January 1919 following the declaration of independence by the Belarusian Democratic Republic in March 1918. In 1922, the BSSR was one of the four founding members of the Soviet Union, together with the Ukrainian SSR, the Transcaucasian SFSR, Byelorussia was one of several Soviet republics occupied by Nazi Germany during World War II. This non-sovereign country of several million was a UN-founding-member, towards the final years of the Soviet Republics existence, the Supreme Soviet of Byelorussian SSR adopted the Declaration of State Sovereignty on 27 July 1990. On 15 August 1991, Stanislau Shushkevich was elected as the countrys first president, ten days later on 25 August 1991, Byelorussian SSR declared its independence and renamed to the Republic of Belarus. The Soviet Union was dissolved four months later on December 26,1991 and this asserted that the territories are all Russian and all the peoples are also Russian, in the case of the Belarusians, they were variants of the Russian people. Following the Bolshevik Revolution in 1917, the term White Russia caused some confusion as it was also the name of the force that opposed the red Bolsheviks. During the period of the Byelorussian SSR, the term Byelorussia was embraced as part of a national consciousness, in western Belarus under Polish control, Byelorussia became commonly used in the regions of Białystok and Grodno during the interwar period. Upon the establishment of the Byelorussian Socialist Soviet Republic in 1920, in 1936, with the proclamation of the 1936 Soviet Constitution, the republic was renamed to the Byelorussian Soviet Socialist Republic transposing the second and third words. On August 25,1991 the Supreme Soviet of the Byelorussian SSR renamed the Soviet republic to the Republic of Belarus, conservative forces in the newly independent Belarus did not support the name change and opposed its inclusion in the 1991 draft of the Constitution of Belarus. Prior to the First World War, Belarusian lands were part of the Russian Empire, during the War, the Russian Western Fronts Great retreat in August/September 1915 ended with the lands of Grodno and most of Vilno guberniyas occupied by Germany. The abdication of the Tsar in light of the February Revolution in Russia in early 1917, as central authority waned, different political and ethnic groups strived for greater self-determination and even secession from the increasingly ineffective Russian Provisional Government. The momentum picked up after the incompetent actions of the 10th Army during the ill-fated Kerensky Offensive during the summer. On 26 November, the committee of workers, peasants and soldiers deputies for the Western Oblast was merged with the Western fronts executive committee. During the autumn 1917/winter of 1918, the Western Oblast was headed by Aleksandr Myasnikyan as head of the Western Oblasts Military Revolutionary Committee, Myasnikyan took over as chair of the Russian Social Democratic Labour Partys committee for Western Oblast and Moisey Kalmanovich as chair of the Obliskomzap. As a result, on 7th of December, when the first All-Belarusian congress convened, a cease-fire was quickly agreed and proper peace negotiations began in December. The German Operation Faustschlag was of immediate success and within 11 days, they were able to make a serious advance eastward, taking over Ukraine, Baltic states and this forced the Obliskomzap to evacuate to Smolensk. The Smolensk guberniya was passed to the Western Oblast, faced with the German demands, the Bolsheviks accepted their terms at the final Treaty of Brest-Litovsk, which was signed on 3 March 1918
37.
Uzbek Soviet Socialist Republic
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The Uzbek Soviet Socialist Republic, also referred to as Soviet Uzbekistan or the Republic of Uzbekistan was one of the republics of the Soviet Union existed from 1924 to 1991. It was governed by the Uzbek branch of the Soviet Communist Party, from 1990 to 1991, it was the sovereign part of the Soviet Union with its own legislation. Beginning 20 June 1990, Uzbek SSR adopted the Declaration of State Sovereignty within its borders, Islam Karimov became the republics inaugural president. On 31 August 1991, the Uzbek Soviet Socialist Republic was renamed the Republic of Uzbekistan, a doubly landlocked Soviet republic in Central Asia. Uzbekistan was bordered by Kazakhstan to the north, Tajikistan to the southeast, Kirghizia to the northeast, Afghanistan to the south, the name, Uzbekistan, literally means Home of the Free, taken from an amalgamation of uz, bek, and -stan. Officially, the name Uzbek Soviet Socialist Republic was the name as defined by its 1937 and 1978 Constitutions. In 1924, the borders of political units in Central Asia were changed along ethnic lines determined by Vladimir Lenin’s Commissar for Nationalities, the next year Uzbekistan became one of the republics of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. In 1928, the collectivization of land into state farms was initiated, Uzbekistan included the Tajik ASSR until 1929, when the Tajik ASSR was upgraded to an equal status. In 1930, the Uzbek SSR capital was relocated from Samarkand to Tashkent, in 1936, Uzbekistan was enlarged with the addition of the Karakalpak ASSR taken from the Kazakh SSR in the last stages of the national delimitation in the Soviet Union. That same year in December, it was renamed to the Uzbek Soviet Socialist Republic, further bits and pieces of territory were transferred several times between Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan after World War II. In 1937–38, during the Great Purge, a number of alleged nationalists were executed, including Faizullah Khojaev, during World War II, many industries were relocated to Uzbekistan from vulnerable locations in western regions of the USSR to keep them safe. Large numbers of Russians, Ukrainians and other nationalities accompanied the factories and this included large numbers of ethnic Koreans, Crimean Tatars, and Chechens. During the Soviet period, Islam became a point for the anti-religious drives of Communist authorities. The government closed most mosques, and religious schools became anti-religious museums, on the positive side was the virtual elimination of illiteracy, even in rural areas. Only a small percentage of the population was literate before 1917, another major development, one with future catastrophic impact, was the drive initiated in the early 1960s to substantially increase cotton production in the republic. This drive led to overzealous irrigation withdrawals of irrigation water from the Amu Darya, towards the end of the Soviet–Afghan War, several troops crossed the Uzbek border from Afghanistan as part of the its withdrawal on 15 February 1989. The Communist Party was the legal party in the Uzbek SSR until 1990. The first secretary, or head, of the Communist Party of Uzbekistan was consistently an Uzbek, long-time leader of the Uzbek SSR was Sharof Rashidov, head of the Communist Party of Uzbekistan from 1959 to 1983
38.
Kazakh Soviet Socialist Republic
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It was created on December 5,1936 from the Kazakh ASSR, an autonomous republic of the Russian SFSR. At 2,717,300 square kilometres in area, it was the second largest republic in the USSR, today it is the independent state of Kazakhstan in Central Asia. During its existence as a Soviet republic it was led by the Communist Party of the Kazakh SSR, on October 25,1990, the Supreme Soviet of the Kazakh SSR declared its sovereignty on its soil. Nursultan Nazarbayev was elected as president – a role he has remained in to this day, the Soviet republic was renamed the Republic of Kazakhstan on December 10,1991, which declared its independence six days later, on December 16,1991. The Soviet Union was disbanded on December 26,1991 by the Soviet of Nationalities, the Republic of Kazakhstan, the legal successor to the Kazakh SSR, was admitted to the United Nations on March 2,1992. The country is named after the Kazakh people, Turkic-speaking former nomads who sustained a powerful khanate in the region before Russian and then Soviet domination. The Soviet Unions spaceport, now known as the Baikonur Cosmodrome, was located in this republic at Tyuratam, established on August 26,1920, it was initially called Kirghiz ASSR and was a part of the Russian SFSR. On April 15–19,1925, it was renamed Kazak ASSR and on December 5,1936 it was elevated to the status of a Union-level republic, Kazakh Soviet Socialist Republic. Between 1932 and 1933, a famine struck Kazakhstan, killing 1.5 million people during the catastrophe of whom 1.3 million were ethnic Kazakhs, during the 1950s and 1960s Soviet citizens were urged to settle in the Virgin Lands of the Kazakh Soviet Socialist Republic. The influx of immigrants, mostly Russians, skewed the ethnic mixture, independence has caused many of these newcomers to emigrate. Only 168-200 civilians were killed or executed, the events were then spilled over to Shymkent, Pavlodar, Karaganda and Taldykorgan. On March 25,1990, Kazakhstan held its first elections with Nursultan Nazarbayev, later that year on October 25, it then declared sovereignty. The republic participated in a referendum to preserve the union in a different entity with 94. 1% voted in favor and it did not happened when hardline communists in Moscow took control of the government in August. Nazarbayev then condemned the failed coup, as a result of those events, the Kazakh SSR was renamed to the Republic of Kazakhstan on December 10,1991. It became independent on December 16, becoming the last republic to secede and its capital was the site of the Alma-Ata Protocol on December 21,1991 that dissolved the Soviet Union and formed the Commonwealth of Independent States in its place which Kazakhstan joined. The Soviet Union officially ceased to exist as a state on December 26,1991. On January 28,1993, the new Constitution of Kazakhstan was officially adopted, according to the 1897 census, the earliest census taken in the region, Kazakhs constituted 81. 7% of the total population within the territory of contemporary Kazakhstan. The Russian population in Kazakhstan was 454,402, or 10, table, Ethnic Composition of Kazakhstan One of the greatest factors that shaped the ethnic composition of Kazakhstan was 1920s and 1930s famines
39.
Georgian Soviet Socialist Republic
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Georgia, formally the Georgian Soviet Socialist Republic, also commonly known as Soviet Georgia was one of the republics of the Soviet Union from its inception in 1922 to its breakup in 1991. From November 18,1989, the Georgian SSR declared its sovereignty over Soviet laws, geographically, the Georgian SSR was bordered by Turkey to the south-west and the Black Sea to the west. Within the Soviet Union it bordered the Russian SFSR to the north, Armenian SSR to the south, on November 28,1917, after the October Revolution in Russia, there was a Transcaucasian Commissariat established in Tiflis. A moderate, multi-party democratic system led by the Social Democratic Party of Georgia operated in the Democratic Republic of Georgia, but in February 1921, the Red Army invaded Georgia. The Socialist Soviet Republic of Georgia was established on February 25,1921, on March 2 of the following year the first constitution of Soviet Georgia was accepted. From March 12,1922 to December 5,1936 it was part of the Transcaucasian SFSR together with the Armenian SSR, in 1936, the TSFSR was dissolved. In 1936, the TSFSR was dissolved and Georgia became the Georgian Soviet Socialist Republic, lavrentiy Beria became head of the Georgian OGPU and purged Georgia until he was transferred to Moscow in 1938. Reaching the Caucasus oilfields was one of the objectives of Hitlers invasion of the USSR in June 1941. The country contributed almost 700,000 fighters to the Red Army and he abolished their respective autonomous republics. The Georgian SSR was briefly granted some of their territory until 1957, the decentralisation program introduced by Khrushchev in the mid-1950s was soon exploited by Georgian Communist Party officials to build their own regional power base. A thriving pseudo-capitalist shadow economy emerged alongside the official state-owned economy, corruption was at a high level. Among all the republics, Georgia had the highest number of residents with high or special secondary education. Although corruption was hardly unknown in the Soviet Union, it became so widespread, shevardnadze ascended to the post of First Secretary with the blessings of Moscow. He was an effective and able ruler of Georgia from 1972 to 1985, improving the official economy, Soviet power and Georgian nationalism clashed in 1978 when Moscow ordered revision of the constitutional status of the Georgian language as Georgias official state language. Bowing to pressure from street demonstrations on April 14,1978. April 14 was established as a Day of the Georgian Language, on April 9,1989, Soviet troops were used to break up a peaceful demonstration at the government building in Tbilisi. Twenty Georgians were killed and hundreds wounded and poisoned, the event radicalised Georgian politics, prompting many - even some Georgian communists - to conclude that independence was preferable to continued Soviet unity. On October 28,1990, democratic elections were held
40.
Azerbaijan Soviet Socialist Republic
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Established on 28 April 1920 as the Azerbaijan SSR, from 12 March 1922 to 5 December 1936, it was part of the Transcausasian SFSR together with the Armenian SSR and the Georgian SSR. In December 1922, the Transcaucasian SFSR became part of the newly established Soviet Union, the Constitution of Azerbaijan SSR was approved by the 9th Extraordinary All-Azerbaijani Congress of Soviets on 14 March 1937. On 19 November 1990, Azerbaijan SSR was renamed the Republic of Azerbaijan, the Constitution of the Azerbaijan SSR ceased to exist in 1995, upon the adoption of the new Constitution of Azerbaijan. The name Azerbaijan originates as the Land of Atropates, an Achaemenid then Hellenistic-era king over a region in present-day Iranian Azarbaijan and Iranian Kurdistan, despite this difference, the present name was chosen by the Musavat to replace the Russian names Transcaucasia and Baku in 1918. Azerbaijan derives from Persian Āzarbāydjān, from earlier Ādharbāyagān and Ādharbādhagān, from Middle Persian Āturpātākān, from its founding it was officially known as the Azerbaijan Socialist Soviet Republic. Upon independence, it was renamed to the Republic of Azerbaijan in 1991, the current official name was retained after the new Constitution of Azerbaijan was adopted in 1995. On 13 October 1921, the Soviet republics of Russia, Armenia, Azerbaijan, the previously independent Naxicivan SSR would also become an autonomous ASSR within Azerbaijan by the Treaty of Kars. Borders of Azerbaijan and Armenia, like elsewhere in the USSR, were several times. On 12 March 1922 the leaders of Azerbaijan, Armenian, and this was the first attempt at a union of Soviet republics, preceding the USSR. The Union Council of TSFSR consisted of the representatives of the three republics – Nariman Narimanov, Polikarp Mdivani, and Aleksandr Fyodorovich Miasnikyan, the First Secretary of the Transcaucasian Communist Party was Sergo Ordzhonikidze. In December 1922 TSFSR agreed to join the union with Russia, Ukraine, the TSFSR, however, did not last long. In December 1936, the Transcaucasian Union was finally dismantled when the leaders in the Union Council found themselves unable to come to agreement over several issues, Azerbaijan, Armenia, and Georgia then became union Republics of the Soviet Union directly. In the spring of 1921, a general change-over from revkoms, in order to help the Azerbaijani oil industry the Supreme Council of the National Economy decided in the same year to provide it with everything necessary out of turn. The new oilfields, like Ilyich Bay, Qara-Chukhur, Lok-Batan, in 1929 a great kolkhoz movement had developed and Azerbaijan became the second Soviet tea producer after the Georgian SSR for the first time. On 31 March 1931 the oil industry of the Azerbaijan SSR, the republic gained the second Order on 15 March 1935 during the observation of its 15th anniversary. At the end of the second five-year plan Azerbaijan appeared at 3rd place in the Soviet Union by its capital investment size, in 1938, the Azerbaijani alphabet was changed from Latin to Cyrillic alphabet. During the period 17 September 1939 to 21 June 1941, the Soviet Union was Nazi Germanys most important ally, in April,1940, intelligence flights by the British and French Air Forces passed over the Absheron Peninsula. Great Britain and France seriously considered the possibility of bombing the Republics oil fields and this changed when Germany invaded the Soviet Union on 22 June 1941
41.
Battle of Grunwald
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The Battle of Grunwald, First Battle of Tannenberg or Battle of Žalgiris, was fought on 15 July 1410 during the Polish–Lithuanian–Teutonic War. Most of the Teutonic Knights leadership were killed or taken prisoner, the knights, however, would never recover their former power, and the financial burden of war reparations caused internal conflicts and an economic downturn in the lands under their control. The battle shifted the balance of power in Central and Eastern Europe and marked the rise of the Polish–Lithuanian union as the dominant political and military force in the region. The battle was one of the largest in Medieval Europe and is regarded as the most important victory in the histories of Poland, Belarus and it has been used as a source of romantic legends and national pride, becoming a larger symbol of struggle against foreign invaders. During the 20th century the battle was used in Nazi and Soviet propaganda campaigns, only in recent decades have historians moved towards a dispassionate, scholarly assessment of the battle, reconciling the previous narratives, which differed widely by nation. Władysław II Jagiełło referred to the site in Latin as in loco conflictus nostri, quem cum Cruciferis de Prusia habuimus, later Polish chroniclers interpreted the word Grunenvelt as Grünwald, meaning green forest in German. The Lithuanians followed suit and translated the name as Žalgiris, the Germans named the battle after Tannenberg. Thus there are three commonly used names for the battle, German, Schlacht bei Tannenberg, Polish, Bitwa pod Grunwaldem, Lithuanian, there are few contemporary, reliable sources about the battle, and most were produced by Poles. The most important and trustworthy source is Cronica conflictus Wladislai regis Poloniae cum Cruciferis anno Christi 1410 and its authorship is uncertain, but several candidates have been proposed, Polish deputy chancellor Mikołaj Trąba and Władysław II Jagiełłos secretary Zbigniew Oleśnicki. While the original Cronica conflictus did not survive, a summary from the 16th century has been preserved. Another important source is Historiae Polonicae by Polish historian Jan Długosz and it is a comprehensive and detailed account written several decades after the battle. The reliability of this source not only from the long gap between the events and the chronicle, but also Długoszs biases against the Lithuanians. Banderia Prutenorum is a manuscript with images and Latin descriptions of the Teutonic battle flags captured during the battle and displayed in Wawel Cathedral. Other Polish sources include two letters written by Władysław II Jagiełło to his wife Anne of Cilli and Bishop of Poznań Wojciech Jastrzębiec, German sources include a concise account in the chronicle of Johann von Posilge. A recently discovered letter, written between 1411 and 1413, provided important details on Lithuanian maneuvers. In 1230 the Teutonic Knights, a military order, moved to Chełmno Land. With support from the pope and Holy Roman Emperor, the Teutons conquered and converted the Prussians by the 1280s, for about 100 years the Knights raided Lithuanian lands, particularly Samogitia, as it separated the Knights in Prussia from their branch in Livonia. While the border became an uninhabited wilderness, the Knights gained very little territory
42.
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
43.
Moldavian Soviet Socialist Republic
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Moldavia, officially the Moldavian Soviet Socialist Republic, also known to as Soviet Moldavia, was one of the fifteen republics of the Soviet Union existed from 1940 to 1991. The republic was formed on August 2,1940 from parts of Bessarabia, a region annexed from Romania on June 28 of that year, and parts of the MASSR, an autonomous republic within the Ukrainian SSR. After the Declaration of Sovereignty on June 23,1990 and until 23 May 1991 it was known as the Soviet Socialist Republic of Moldova. From 23 May 1991 until the declaration of independence on 27 August 1991, geographically, the Moldavian SSR was bordered by Romania to the west and Ukraine to the north, east, and south. On August 24,1939, the Soviet Union and Nazi Germany signed a 10-year non-aggression treaty, the secret protocol placed the Romanian province of Bessarabia in the Soviet sphere of influence. On June 26, four days after France sued for an armistice with the Third Reich, the Moldavian Soviet Socialist Republic was thereafter created following the entrance of Soviet troops on June 28,1940. 90% of the territory of MSSR was on the bank of the river Dniester. As such, the strategically important Black Sea coast and Danube frontage were given to the Ukrainian SSR, considered more reliable than the Moldavian SSR, by the end of World War II the Soviet Union had reconquered all of the lost territories, reestablishing Soviet authority there. On June 22,1941, during the first day of the German invasion of the Soviet Union,10 people were killed in Răzeni by Soviet authorities, a memorial was opened in 2009. The Soviet authorities targeted several socio-economic groups due to their situation, political views. They were deported to or resettled in Siberia and northern Kazakhstan, according to a report by the Presidential Commission for the Study of the Communist Dictatorship in Romania, no less than 86,604 people were arrested and deported in 1940-1941 alone. Modern Russian historians put forward a number of 90,000 for the same period. NKVD/MGB also struck at anti-Soviet groups, which were most active in 1944-1952, a de-kulakisation campaign was directed towards the rich Moldavian peasant families, which were deported to Kazakhstan and Siberia as well. Religious persecutions during the Soviet occupation targeted numerous priests, after the Soviet occupation, the religious life underwent a persecution similar to the one in Russia between the two World Wars. Other deportation campaigns were directed towards the ethnic Germans and religious minorities, collectivisation was implemented between 1949 and 1950, although earlier attempts were made since 1946. According to Charles King, there is evidence that it was caused by the Soviets and directed towards the largest ethnic group living in the countryside. The main cause was the Soviet requisitioning of large amounts of products, but it was also aggravated by war, the draught of 1946. With the regime of Nikita Khrushchev replacing that of Joseph Stalin, in the 1970s and 1980s Moldavia received substantial investment from the budget of the USSR to develop industrial, scientific facilities, as well as housing
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Daugava
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The River Daugava or Western Dvina is a river rising in the Valdai Hills, Russia, flowing through Russia, Belarus, and Latvia and into the Gulf of Riga. The total length of the river is 1,020 km,325 km in Russia,338 km in Belarus, within Latvia it flows through Latgale, Zemgale, Vidzeme and Riga, before flowing into the Gulf of Riga. The total catchment area of the river is 87,900 km2,33,150 km2 of which are within Belarus. According to the Max Vasmers Etymological Dictionary, the toponym Dvina clearly cannot stem from a Uralic language, the river began experiencing environmental deterioration in the era of Soviet collective agriculture and a wave of hydroelectric power projects. Ruba, Vitebsk, Beshankovichy, Polotsk with Boris stones strewn in the vicinity, Navapolatsk, Dzisna, Verkhnedvinsk, krāslava, Daugavpils, Līvāni, Jēkabpils, Pļaviņas, Aizkraukle, Jaunjelgava, Lielvārde, Kegums, Ogre, Ikšķile, Salaspils and Riga. Beginning around the sixth century AD, Viking explorers crossed the Baltic Sea and entered the Daugava River, in medieval times the Daugava was an important navigation trading route for transport of furs from the north and Byzantine silver. In Belarus, water pollution of the Daugava is considered severe, with the chief sources being treated wastewater, fish-farming. Daugava River photos at flickr Richard C, francis W. Carter and David Turnock. Environmental problems of East Central Europe
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Latvian Soviet Socialist Republic
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The Latvian Soviet Socialist Republic, also known as Soviet Latvia or Latvia, was a republic of the Soviet Union. Its territory was conquered by Nazi Germany in June–July 1941. Soviet rule came to the end during the dissolution of the Soviet Union, and restoring its former state symbols - flag and anthem. The full independence of the Republic of Latvia was restored on 21 August 1991, during the 1991 Soviet coup détat attempt, on September 24,1939, the USSR entered the airspace of Estonia, flying numerous intelligence gathering operations. On September 25, Moscow demanded that Estonia sign a Soviet–Estonian Mutual Assistance Treaty that would allow the USSR to establish military bases, Latvia was next in line, as the USSR demanded the signing of a similar treaty. The authoritarian government of Kārlis Ulmanis accepted the ultimatum, signing the Soviet–Latvian Mutual Assistance Treaty on October 5,1939. On June 16,1940, after the USSR had already invaded Lithuania, hundreds of thousands Soviet troops entered Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania. These additional Soviet military forces far outnumbered the armies of each country, the Latvian army did not fire a shot and was quickly decimated by purges and included in the Red Army. Ulmanis government resigned and was replaced by a government created under instructions from the USSR embassy. Up until the elections of the Peoples Parliament on July 14–15,1940 there were no public statements about governmental plans to introduce a Soviet political order or to join the Soviet Union. Soon after the occupation, the Communist Party of Latvia was legalized as the legal party. It was the only permitted participant in the election, after an attempt by other politicians to include the Democratic Bloc on the ballot was prevented by the government and its office was closed, election leaflets confiscated and its leaders arrested. The election results themselves were fabricated, the Soviet press service released them so early that they appeared in a London newspaper a full 24 hours before the polls had closed, all Soviet army personnel present in the country were allowed to vote. The newly elected Peoples Parliament convened on 21 July to declare the creation of the Latvian SSR, on August 5, the Supreme Soviet of the Soviet Union completed the process of annexation by accepting the Latvian petition, and formally incorporated Latvia into the Soviet Union. Some of the Latvian diplomats stayed in the West and the Latvian Diplomatic Service continued to advocate the cause of Latvias freedom for the next 50 years. Therefore, the history of Soviet Latvia can broadly be divided in the periods of rule by the First Secretaries, Jānis Kalnbērziņš, Arvīds Pelše, Augusts Voss, in the following months of 1940 the Soviet Constitution and criminal code were introduced. The sham elections of July 1940 were followed by elections to the Supreme Soviet of the Soviet Union in January 1941, the remaining Baltic Germans and anyone who could claim to be one emigrated to the German Reich. On August 7,1940 all print media and printing houses were nationalized, most of the existing magazines and newspapers were discontinued or appeared under new, Soviet names
