1.
Eastern Slavic naming customs
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They are also featured in the non-Slavic Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan as a result of the expansion of Russia and the result of Russification. As with most cultures, a person has a name chosen by the parents. First names in East Slavic languages mostly originate from two sources, Orthodox church tradition and native pre-Christian Slavic lexicons, all first names are single, non-doubled. Doubled first names are a very rare foreign-influenced instance, most doubled first names are spelled with the dash. Being highly synthetic, Eastern Slavic languages treat personal names as grammatical nouns and this auxiliary stem may be identical to the word stem of the full name while most names have it derived unproductively. Most commonly, Russian philologists distinguish the forms of given names, The short name, historically also half-name, is the most simple. Some names, such as Zhanna, Mark, etc. do not possess short forms, in the latter case, one form is usually more informal than the other. Diminutive forms are produced from the name by means of various suffixes. Unlike the full name, a diminutive name carries a particular emotional attitude, depending on the nature of this attitude, nameforms can be subdivided in three broad groups, affectionate, familiar and slang. Typically formed by suffixes -еньк-, -оньк-, -ечк-, -ушк and it is often used to address children or intimate friends. Within a more official context, this form may be combined with honorific plural to address a female colleague. Colloquial diminutives are derived from short names by means of -к- suffix, expressing a highly familiar attitude, it may be considered rude or even pejorative outside of friendly context. Slang forms mostly exist for male names, being produced though suffixes -ян, -он and these suffixes give off the sense of male brotherhood once expressed by patronymic-only form of address in Soviet Union. Originating in criminal communities, these came into wide usage in Russia in the 1990s. During the days of revolutionary enthusiasm, as part of the campaign to rid Russia of bourgeois culture, there was a drive to invent new, as a result, a large number of Soviet children were given unusual or atypical names. The patronymic name is based on the first name of the father and is written in all legal, if used with the first name, the patronymic always follows it. The patronymic is formed by a combination of the fathers name, the suffix -ович is used for son, suffix -овна - for daughter. For example, if the name was Иван, then the patronymic will be Иванович for a son
Eastern Slavic naming customs
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An example of an
ID document of a citizen of
Russia. The lower page includes the lines: Имя ("Name"), Фамилия ("Family name") and Отчество ("Patronymic").
Eastern Slavic naming customs
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Marina Tsvetaeva, a Russian poet. The name "Marina" traditionally has no short form.
Eastern Slavic naming customs
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Руслан (Ruslan), a character in
Alexander Pushkin 's poem
Ruslan and Ludmila. The short form for Руслан (Ruslan) is Руся (Rusya).
Eastern Slavic naming customs
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Николай II (
Nicholas II), the last Russian emperor. In private communication,
his wife called him in the German manner, "Nicky", instead the East Slavic short variant Коля ("Kolya").
2.
Leonid Brezhnev
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Leonid Ilyich Brezhnev was the General Secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, presiding over the country from 1964 until his death in 1982. His eighteen-year term as General Secretary was second only to that of Joseph Stalin in duration, during Brezhnevs rule, the global influence of the Soviet Union grew dramatically, in part because of the expansion of the Soviet military during this time. His tenure as leader was marked by the beginning of an era of economic, Brezhnev was born in Kamenskoye into a Russian workers family in 1906. After graduating from the Dniprodzerzhynsk Metallurgical Technicum, he became an engineer in the iron and steel industry. He joined Komsomol in 1923, and in 1929 became a member of the CPSU. He was drafted into military service during World War II. While at the helm of the USSR, Brezhnev pushed for détente between the Eastern and Western countries. However, in December 1981 he decided not to intervene in Poland, instead allowing the countrys government to impose martial law. After years of declining health, Brezhnev died on 10 November 1982 and was succeeded in his post as General Secretary by Yuri Andropov. Brezhnev had fostered a cult of personality, although not nearly to the degree as Stalin. Mikhail Gorbachev, who would lead the USSR from 1985 to 1991, denounced his legacy, in spite of this, opinion polls in Russia show Brezhnev to be the most popular Russian leader of the 20th century. Brezhnev was born on 19 December 1906 in Kamianske in Ukraine, to metalworker Ilya Yakovlevich Brezhnev and his wife and his parents used to live in Brezhnevo before moving to Kamenskoe. Brezhnevs ethnicity was specified as Ukrainian in some documents, including his passport, like many youths in the years after the Russian Revolution of 1917, he received a technical education, at first in land management where he started as a land surveyor and then in metallurgy. He graduated from the Dniprodzerzhynsk Metallurgical Technicum in 1935 and became an engineer in the iron. Brezhnev joined the Communist Party youth organisation, the Komsomol, in 1923, in 1935 and 1936, Brezhnev served his compulsory military service, and after taking courses at a tank school, he served as a political commissar in a tank factory. Later in 1936, he director of the Dniprodzerzhynsk Metallurgical Technicum. In 1936, he was transferred to the center of Dnipropetrovsk and, in 1939, he became Party Secretary in Dnipropetrovsk. As a survivor of Stalins Great Purge of 1937–39, he was able to quickly as the purges created numerous openings in the senior and middle ranks of the Party
Leonid Brezhnev
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Brezhnev in
East Berlin in 1967
Leonid Brezhnev
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Young Brezhnev with his wife
Victoria
Leonid Brezhnev
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Brezhnev with
Nikita Khrushchev during the war
Leonid Brezhnev
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Khrushchev in 1963, one year before his ousting
3.
Konstantin Chernenko
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Konstantin Ustinovich Chernenko was a Soviet politician and the fifth General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union. He led the Soviet Union from 13 February 1984 until his death thirteen months later, Chernenko was also Chairman of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet from 11 April 1984 until his death. Chernenko was born to a family in the village of Bolshaya Tes on 24 September 1911. His father, Ustin Demidovich, worked in mines and gold mines while his mother took care of the farm work. Chernenko joined the Komsomol in 1929, and became a member of the Communist Party in 1931. From 1930 to 1933, he served in the Soviet frontier guards on the Soviet-Chinese border, after completing his military service, he returned to Krasnoyarsk as a propagandist. In 1933 he worked in the Propaganda Department of the Novosyolovsky District Party Committee, a few years later he was promoted to head of the same department in Uyarsk Raykom. It was in the 1940s that Chernenko established a relationship with Fyodor Kulakov. In 1945, he acquired a diploma from a party training school in Moscow, the turning point in Chernenko’s career was his assignment in 1948 to head the Communist Party’s propaganda department in the Moldavian Soviet Socialist Republic. There, he met and won the confidence of Leonid Brezhnev, Chernenko followed Brezhnev in 1956 to fill a similar propaganda post in the CPSU Central Committee in Moscow. In 1960, after Brezhnev was named chairman of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet, in 1964 Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev was deposed, and succeeded by Leonid Brezhnev. During Brezhnevs tenure as Party leader, Chernenkos career continued successfully and he also monitored telephone wiretaps and covert listening devices in various offices of the top Party members. Another one of his jobs was to sign hundreds of Party documents daily, even after he became General Secretary of the Party, he continued to sign papers referring to the General Department. In 1971 Chernenko was promoted to membership in the Central Committee, Overseeing Party work over the Letter Bureau. In 1976 he was elected secretary of the Letter Bureau, in 1977 he became Candidate, and in 1978 full member of the Politburo, serving second to the General Secretary in terms of Party hierarchy. In 1979 he took part in the Vienna arms limitation talks, yuri Andropov died in February 1984, after just 15 months in office. Chernenko was then elected to replace Andropov, despite concerns over his own ailing health, yegor Ligachev writes in his memoirs that Chernenko was elected general secretary without a hitch. At Andropovs funeral, he could read the eulogy
Konstantin Chernenko
–
Konstantin Chernenko
4.
List of heads of state of the Soviet Union
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Under the 1924,1936 and 1977 Soviet Constitution these bodies served as the collective head of state of the Soviet Union. The Chairman of these bodies personally performed the ceremonial functions assigned to a single head of state. The Soviet Union was established in 1922, however, the countrys first constitution was adopted in 1924. Before that time, the 1918 Constitution of the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic was adopted as the constitution of the USSR, the CEC could also limit taxes. In periods between convocations of the Congress of Soviets the CEC held supreme power, in between sessions of the Congress of Soviets the CEC was responsible for all the affairs of the Congress of Soviets. The CEC and the Congress of Soviets was replaced by the Presidium, the Supreme Soviet was the highest organ of state power, and was the sole organ to hold legislative power in the Soviet Union. Sessions of the Supreme Soviet were convened by the Presidium twice a year, however, in the event of a disagreement between the Soviet of the Union and the Soviet of Nationalities the Presidium could form a conciliation commission. If this commission failed the Presidium could dissolve the Supreme Soviet, the Presidency was established in 1990 and the President would, according to the altered constitution, be elected by the Soviet people by direct and secret ballot. However, the first and only Soviet President, Mikhail Gorbachev, was elected by the democratically elected Congress of Peoples Deputies, in connection with the dissolution of the Soviet Union national elections for the office of President never took place. To be elected to the office a person must have been a Soviet citizen and older than thirty-five, the same person could not be elected president for more than two terms. The Presidency was the highest state office, and was the most important office in the Soviet Union by influence and recognition, eclipsing that of Premier, with the establishment of the Presidency executive power was shared between the President and the Prime Minister. The first head of state was Mikhail Kalinin, who was inaugurated in 1922 after the Treaty on the Creation of the USSR, at over twenty years, Kalinin spent the longest time in office, he died shortly after his resignation in 1946. Andropov spent the shortest time in office, there have been four individuals appointed vice head of state. At over eight years, Vasily Kuznetsov spent the longest time in office, gennady Yanayev spent the shortest time in office
List of heads of state of the Soviet Union
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Mikhail Kalinin (1875–1946)
List of heads of state of the Soviet Union
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State Emblem
List of heads of state of the Soviet Union
List of heads of state of the Soviet Union
5.
Presidium of the Supreme Soviet
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The Presidium of the Supreme Soviet was a Soviet governmental institution – a permanent body of the Supreme Soviets. This body was of the level, as well as in all Soviet republics. Structure and functions of the presidiums in these republics were virtually identical, the presidiums were elected by the Supreme Soviet to act on its behalf while the soviet was not in session. Under the 1936 and 1977 Soviet Constitution the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet served as the head of state of the Soviet Union. Its building, situated inside the Moscow Kremlin, was named the Kremlin Presidium. The Presidium of the Supreme Soviet was elected by the Supreme Soviet of the USSR at a joint session of both chambers at the first session of each following convocation, the deputies of the Presidium were appointed for the duration of the term of office of the Supreme Soviet. The Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR consisted of a chairman, his 15 deputies, a secretary, the Presidium was accountable to the Supreme Soviet of the USSR for all its activities. The presidium also dealt with questions regarding the acquisition of the Soviet citizenship, its forfeiting or voluntary rejection
Presidium of the Supreme Soviet
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Soviet Union
6.
Vasili Kuznetsov (politician)
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Kuznetsov was born in Sofilovka, Kostroma Governorate. He joined the Communist Party in May 1927 and he took a break from his engineering education when he went to the United States to study metal processing at Carnegie Mellon University from 1931 to 1933. Kuznetsov held a variety of government and Communist Party positions beginning in 1940 and he was Chairman of the Soviet of Nationalities from 12 March 1946 to 12 March 1950. In 1955 he became First Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs, on 7 October 1977 he was elected as First Deputy Chairman of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet, a position he held until 18 June 1986. Upon the deaths of Leonid Brezhnev, Yuri Andropov and Konstantin Chernenko and he retired in 1986 and died in Moscow on 5 June 1990. Nikolai A. Zenkovič, Samye zakrytye ljudi i, encyclopedia of biographies, OLMA-Press, Moscow,2002, ISBN 5-94850-035-7, pp. 298–292
Vasili Kuznetsov (politician)
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Vasili Kuznetsov
7.
List of Chairmen of the KGB
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The Chairman of the KGB was the head of the Soviet KGB. He was assisted by one or two First Deputy Chairmen, and four to six Deputy Chairmen, in 1934-1943 the Soviet State Security agency was part of Peoples Commissariat of Interior as Main Directorate of State Security. Director of GUGB was the first deputy of Peoples Commissar of Interior, the State Within a State, The KGB and Its Hold on Russia – Past, Present, and Future. KGB, The Secret Works Of Soviet Secret Agents, bantam Books ISBN 0-553-23275-4 Vadim J. Birstein. The Perversion Of Knowledge, The True Story of Soviet Science, westview Press ISBN 0-8133-4280-5 John Dziak, Chekisty, A History of the KGB, Lexington Books ISBN 978-0-669-10258-1 Sheymov, Victor. ISBN 5-93518-035-9 KGB Information Center from FAS. org Chebrikov, Viktor M. et al. eds, the religion of betrayal - book by Yuri Shchekochikhin
List of Chairmen of the KGB
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Felix Dzerzhinsky (1877–1926)
List of Chairmen of the KGB
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Flag of the KGB commanders
List of Chairmen of the KGB
List of Chairmen of the KGB
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Genrikh Yagoda (1891–1936)
8.
Alexei Kosygin
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Alexei Nikolayevich Kosygin was a Soviet-Russian statesman during the Cold War. Kosygin was born in the city of Saint Petersburg in 1904 to a Russian working-class family and he was conscripted into the labour army during the Russian Civil War, and after the Red Armys demobilisation in 1921, he worked in Siberia as an industrial manager. Kosygin returned to Leningrad in the early 1930s and worked his way up the Soviet hierarchy, during the Great Patriotic War, Kosygin was a member of the State Defence Committee and was tasked with moving Soviet industry out of territories soon to be overrun by the German Army. He served as Minister of Finance for a year before becoming Minister of Light Industry and later, Stalin removed Kosygin from the Politburo one year before his own death in 1953, intentionally weakening Kosygins position within the Soviet hierarchy. After the power struggle triggered by Stalins death in 1953, Nikita Khrushchev became the new leader, on 20 March 1959, Kosygin was appointed to the position of Chairman of the State Planning Committee, a post he would hold for little more than a year. Kosygin next became First Deputy chairman of the Council of Ministers, when Khrushchev was replaced in 1964, Kosygin and Leonid Brezhnev became Premier and First Secretary respectively. Kosygin, along with Brezhnev and Nikolai Podgorny, the Chairman of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet, was a member of the newly established collective leadership. This reform, along with his open stance on solving the Prague Spring. More conservative members of the top leadership saw some of Kosygins policies as too radical, by the 1970s, Brezhnev had consolidated enough power to stop any radical reform-minded attempts by Kosygin. In 1980, Kosygin retired from due to bad health. Kosygin was born into a Russian working-class family consisting of his father and mother, Nikolai Ilyich and Matrona Alexandrovna, the family lived in Saint Petersburg. Kosygin was baptised one month after his birth on 7 March and he was conscripted into a labour army on the Bolshevik side during the Russian Civil War. After the Red Armys demobilisation in 1921, Kosygin attended the Leningrad Co-operative Technical School and found work in the system of consumer co-operatives in Novosibirsk, Siberia. When asked why he worked in the sector of the economy, Kosygin replied, quoting a slogan of Vladimir Lenin. Kosygin stayed there for six years and he applied for a membership in the Communist Party of the Soviet Union in 1927 and returned to Leningrad in 1930 to study at the Leningrad Textile Institute, he graduated in 1935. After finishing his studies, Kosygin was employed as a textile mill director, in 1940 Kosygin became a Deputy chairman of the Council of Peoples Commissars, and was appointed in 1943 as Chairman of the Council of Peoples Commissars of the Russian SFSR. Kosygin worked for the State Defence Committee during the Great Patriotic War, as Deputy Chairman of the Council of Evacuation, his task was to evacuate industry from territories soon to be overrun by the Germans. He broke the Leningrad Blockade by organising the construction of a supply route, Kosygin was a candidate member of the Politburo from 1946 to 1949, and became a full member toward the end of Joseph Stalins rule, he lost his seat in 1952
Alexei Kosygin
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Kosygin at the Glassboro Summit Conference, 23 June 1967
Alexei Kosygin
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The
House on the Embankment was a building completed in 1931 to house the government elite; Kosygin lived there
Alexei Kosygin
Alexei Kosygin
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Kosygin with US President
Lyndon B. Johnson at the 1967
Glassboro Summit Conference
9.
Nikolai Tikhonov
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Nikolai Aleksandrovich Tikhonov was a Soviet Russian-Ukrainian statesman during the Cold War. He served as Chairman of the Council of Ministers from 1980 to 1985, Tikhonov was responsible for the cultural and economic administration of the Soviet Union during the late era of stagnation. He was replaced as Chairman of the Council of Ministers in 1985 by Nikolai Ryzhkov, in the same year, he lost his seat in the Politburo, however, he retained his seat in the Central Committee until 1989. He was born in the city of Kharkiv in 1905 to a Russian-Ukrainian working-class family, he graduated in the 1920s, Tikhonov began his political career in local industry, and worked his way up the hierarchy of Soviet industrial ministries. He was appointed deputy chairman of the Gosplan in 1963, after Alexei Kosygins resignation Tikhonov was voted into office as Chairman of the Council of Ministers. In this position, he refrained from taking measures to reform the Soviet economy. He retired from politics in 1989 as a pensioner. Tikhonov died on 1 June 1997, Tikhonov was born in the Ukrainian city of Kharkiv on 14 May 1905 to a Russian-Ukrainian working-class family, he graduated from the St. Catherine Institute of Communications in 1924. Tikhonov worked as an assistant engineer from 1924 to 1926, four years later, in 1930, Tikhonov graduated as an engineer, earning a degree from the Dnipropetrovsk Metallurgical Institute. From 1930 to 1941, Tikhonov worked as an engineer at the Lenin Metallurgical Plant in Dnipropetrovsk and it was during his stay in Dnipropetrovsk that he met Leonid Brezhnev, a future leader of the Soviet Union. Tikhonov joined the All-Union Communist Party in 1940 and by the end of the decade, had secured a job as a plant director, Tikhonov was quickly promoted, and started working for the Ministry of Ferrous Metallurgy in the 1950s. At the 22nd Party Congress Tikhonov was elected to the Central Committee as a non-voting member, at the 23rd party congress in 1966, Tikhonov was elected a member of the Central Committee. Tikhonov was awarded the Hero of Socialist Labour award for his first time, during his tenure as Deputy Premier Tikhonov was in charge of metallurgy and chemical industry, his responsibilities did not change with his ascension to the post of First Deputy Premier. However, he did provide a general coordination for heavy industry, when Alexei Kosygin, the Premier, was on sick leave in 1976 Brezhnev took advantage of his illness by appointing Tikhonov to the office of First Deputy Premier. As First Deputy Premier, Tikhonov was able to reduce Kosygin to a standby figure, Tikhonov was, however, one of the few who got along with both Brezhnev and Kosygin, both of them liked his candor and honesty. In 1978 Tikhonov was elected a member of the Politburo and was made a voting member of the Politburo in 1979. Tikhonov was not informed of the decision to intervene in Afghanistan, the reason being his bad relationship with Dmitriy Ustinov, when Alexei Kosygin resigned in 1980 Tikhonov, at the age of 75, was elected the new Chairman of the Council of Ministers. During his five-year term as premier Tikhonov refrained from reforming the Soviet economy, Tikhonov presented the Eleventh Five-Year Plan at the 26th Party Congress, and told the delegates that the state would allocate nine million rubles for mothers who were seeking parental leave
Nikolai Tikhonov
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Nikolai Tikhonov Николай Тихонов
Nikolai Tikhonov
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Tikhonov acted as the unofficial leader of the Soviet Union during most of Chernenko's reign
10.
Vladimir Semichastny
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Vladimir Yefimovich Semichastny was a Soviet politician, who served as Chairman of the KGB from November 1961 to May 1967. A protégé of Alexander Shelepin, he rose through the ranks of the Communist Youth League, Semichastny was born in January 1924 in the village of Grygorevka, near Grishino, in the Donetsk Oblast of Soviet Ukraine, to a working-class Russian family originally from Tula Province. After the liberation of the Donbass by the Red Army in 1943, later, he received a degree in History from Kiev State University. After the end of the war, Semichastny became an employee of the Communist Youth League, working in the fields of propaganda. From 1947 to 1950 he was First Secretary of the Ukrainian Komsomol, Semichastny was appointed Chairman of the KGB by Nikita Khrushchev in November 1961, again succeeding his friend and mentor Shelepin, who had been KGB Chairman since 1958. Appointed at the age of 37, he was the youngest Soviet security and he also put much emphasis on developing the security and intelligence services of the Soviet satellite states, and on assisting the communist forces in the Vietnam War. Despite Khrushchevs fondness and esteem, Semichastny never became part of the Soviet leaders inner circle, during the Cuban Missile Crisis, Semichastny was responsible for coordinating all information received from abroad. His chosen crisis team oversaw intelligence from the Foreign Ministry, the GRU and, of course, the team met every day in his office at KGB Headquarters in Lubyanka Square. More articles, books and films on the security organs appeared, and Soviet spies became heroes in print and cinema — Rudolf Abel, Gordon Lonsdale, Harold Philby, in October 1963, Semichastny sanctioned the arrest of Professor Frederick Barghoorn of Yale University when he was visiting Moscow. Semichastny hoped that by charging Barghoorn as a spy he could induce the United States to release Igor Ivanov, Barghoorn was a personal friend of President John F. Kennedy, who forcefully stated that Barghoorn was not involved in any illegal activities at a press conference. Ivanov was eventually allowed to leave the United States in 1971, brezhnev finally replaced Semichastny on 18 May 1967, as part of a Kremlin power shuffle, and Yuri Andropov became the new Chairman of the KGB. Semichastnys close friend Shelepin was also removed from any positions of influence, in 1981 he was removed from that position as well, and retired to private life. Semichastny died in Moscow at the age of 77, on January 12,2001, after US President John F. Kennedy was assassinated in 1963, Semichastny investigated the background of Lee Harvey Oswald, who was arrested for the murder and was himself shot dead
Vladimir Semichastny
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Vladimir Semichastny with intelligence officers
11.
Vitaly Fedorchuk
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Vitaly Vasilyevich Fedorchuk was a Ukrainian Soviet security and intelligence officer and politician. Born in 1918 to a poor Ukrainian peasant family in the village of Ogievka, located in the Zhitomir region of Ukraine and he was called up for military service in 1936 and graduated from the Military Signals and Communications School in Kiev. Initially a signals officer in the Red Army, in 1939 he was recruited by the NKVD as a full-time operative. At the beginning of his career as a security officer, Fedorchuk was assigned to the Peoples Republic of Mongolia. He then served as assistant to the operational commissar of the Special Department of the NKVD of the Urals Military District. Between 1943 and 1949 he served as deputy chief of military counterintelligence in Yaroslavl, in 1949 he was assigned as a military counterintelligence officer on the Central Group of Forces in Soviet-occupied Austria. Then he worked in East Germany and again in Austria, in the Soviet Embassy in Vienna, until 1967, in 1967, he was appointed Director of the Third Directorate of the KGB where he served until 1970. For a period of 12 years, between 18 July 1970 and 26 May 1982, Fedorchuk served as Chairman of the Ukrainian KGB, in this capacity, he led a fierce suppression of Ukrainian nationalism. He was appointed Chairman of the KGB on 26 May 1982, replacing Yuri Andropov and he then became the Soviet Interior Minister in December 1982, replacing Brezhnevs man Nikolai Shchelokov. His term ended in January 1986 and he was succeeded by Alexander V. Vlasov, after leaving the Interior Ministry, Fedorchuk became an Inspector at the Ministry of Defense, a largely honorary post, and then, he retired. Fedorchuk died in Moscow on 29 February 2008 at the age of 89 and his body was buried at Moscows Troyekurovskoye cemetery
Vitaly Fedorchuk
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Vitaly Fedorchuk Виталий Федорчук
12.
Stavropol Governorate
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The Stavropol Governorate was a governorate of the Russian Empire. It roughly corresponded to most of present-day Stavropol Krai and it was created out of the territories of Caucasian peoples. As of 1897,873,301 people populated the oblast, russians constituted the majority of the population. Total Slavic population was 804,153 William Henry Beable, Governments or Provinces of the Former Russian Empire, Stavropol, Russian Gazetteer and Guide, London, Russian Outlook – via Open Library
Stavropol Governorate
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Stavropol Governorate 1910
Stavropol Governorate
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Ethnic groups in 1897
13.
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
Russian Empire
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Peter the Great officially renamed the Tsardom of Russia the Russian Empire in 1721, and himself its first emperor. He instituted the
sweeping reforms and oversaw the transformation of Russia into a major European power.
Russian Empire
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Flag
Russian Empire
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Empress
Catherine the Great, who reigned from 1762 to 1796, continued the empire's expansion and modernization. Considering herself an
enlightened absolutist, she played a key role in the
Russian Enlightenment.
Russian Empire
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Catherine II Sestroretsk Rouble (1771) is made of solid copper measuring 77 millimetres (3 3 ⁄ 100 in) (diameter), 26 millimetres (1 1 ⁄ 50 in) (thickness), and weighs 1.022 kg (2.25 lb). It is the largest copper coin ever issued.
14.
Moscow
–
Moscow is the capital and most populous city of Russia, with 13.2 million residents within the city limits and 17.8 million within the urban area. Moscow has the status of a Russian federal city, Moscow is a major political, economic, cultural, and scientific center of Russia and Eastern Europe, as well as the largest city entirely on the European continent. Moscow is the northernmost and coldest megacity and metropolis on Earth and it is home to the Ostankino Tower, the tallest free standing structure in Europe, the Federation Tower, the tallest skyscraper in Europe, and the Moscow International Business Center. Moscow is situated on the Moskva River in the Central Federal District of European Russia, the city is well known for its architecture, particularly its historic buildings such as Saint Basils Cathedral with its brightly colored domes. Moscow is the seat of power of the Government of Russia, being the site of the Moscow Kremlin, the Moscow Kremlin and Red Square are also one of several World Heritage Sites in the city. Both chambers of the Russian parliament also sit in the city and it is recognized as one of the citys landmarks due to the rich architecture of its 200 stations. In old Russian the word also meant a church administrative district. The demonym for a Moscow resident is москвич for male or москвичка for female, the name of the city is thought to be derived from the name of the Moskva River. There have been proposed several theories of the origin of the name of the river and its cognates include Russian, музга, muzga pool, puddle, Lithuanian, mazgoti and Latvian, mazgāt to wash, Sanskrit, majjati to drown, Latin, mergō to dip, immerse. There exist as well similar place names in Poland like Mozgawa, the original Old Russian form of the name is reconstructed as *Москы, *Mosky, hence it was one of a few Slavic ū-stem nouns. From the latter forms came the modern Russian name Москва, Moskva, in a similar manner the Latin name Moscovia has been formed, later it became a colloquial name for Russia used in Western Europe in the 16th–17th centuries. From it as well came English Muscovy, various other theories, having little or no scientific ground, are now largely rejected by contemporary linguists. The surface similarity of the name Russia with Rosh, an obscure biblical tribe or country, the oldest evidence of humans on the territory of Moscow dates from the Neolithic. Within the modern bounds of the city other late evidence was discovered, on the territory of the Kremlin, Sparrow Hills, Setun River and Kuntsevskiy forest park, etc. The earliest East Slavic tribes recorded as having expanded to the upper Volga in the 9th to 10th centuries are the Vyatichi and Krivichi, the Moskva River was incorporated as part of Rostov-Suzdal into the Kievan Rus in the 11th century. By AD1100, a settlement had appeared on the mouth of the Neglinnaya River. The first known reference to Moscow dates from 1147 as a place of Yuri Dolgoruky. At the time it was a town on the western border of Vladimir-Suzdal Principality
Moscow
–
Left to right, top to bottom:
Moscow State University,
Spasskaya Clocktower,
Cathedral of Christ the Saviour;
Bolshoi Theatre,
Moscow International Business Center;
Red Square
Moscow
–
Tatar raid upon Moscow
Moscow
–
Map of Moscow, 1784
Moscow
–
Red Square, painting by
Fedor Alekseev, 1801
15.
Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic
–
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
Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic
–
Flag (1954–1991)
16.
Soviet Union
–
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
Soviet Union
–
Vladimir Lenin addressing a crowd with Trotsky, 1920
Soviet Union
–
Flag
Soviet Union
–
Stalin and
Nikolai Yezhov, head of the
NKVD. After Yezhov was executed, he was
edited out of the image.
Soviet Union
17.
Communist Party of the Soviet Union
–
The Communist Party of the Soviet Union, abbreviated in English as CPSU, was the founding and ruling political party of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. The party was founded in 1912 by the Bolsheviks, a group led by Vladimir Lenin which seized power in the aftermath of the October Revolution of 1917. The party was dissolved on 29 August 1991 on Soviet territory soon after a failed coup détat and was abolished on 6 November 1991 on Russian territory. The highest body within the CPSU was the party Congress, which convened every five years, when the Congress was not in session, the Central Committee was the highest body. Because the Central Committee met twice a year, most day-to-day duties and responsibilities were vested in the Politburo, the Secretariat, and the Orgburo. The party leader was the head of government and held the office of either General Secretary, Premier or head of state, or some of the three offices concurrently—but never all three at the same time. The CPSU, according to its party statute, adhered to Marxism–Leninism, a based on the writings of Vladimir Lenin and Karl Marx. The party pursued state socialism, under which all industries were nationalized, a number of causes contributed to CPSUs loss of control and the dissolution of the Soviet Union. Some historians have written that Gorbachevs policy of glasnost was the root cause, Gorbachev maintained that perestroika without glasnost was doomed to failure anyway. Others have blamed the stagnation and subsequent loss of faith by the general populace in communist ideology. The Russian Socialist Federative Soviet Republic, the worlds first constitutionally socialist state, was established by the Bolsheviks in the aftermath of the October Revolution. Immediately after the Revolution, the new, Lenin-led government implemented socialist reforms, including the transfer of estates, in this context, in 1918, RSDLP became Russian Communist Party and remained so until 1997. Lenin supported world revolution he sought peace with the Central Powers. The treaty was voided after the Allied victory in World War I, in 1921, Lenin proposed the New Economic Policy, a system of state capitalism that started the process of industrialization and recovery from the Civil War. On 30 December 1922, the Russian SFSR joined former territories of the Russian Empire in the Soviet Union, on 9 March 1923, Lenin suffered a stroke, which incapacitated him and effectively ended his role in government. He died on 21 January 1924 and was succeeded by Joseph Stalin, after emerging victorious from a power struggle with Trotsky, Stalin obtained full control of the party and Stalinism was installed as the only ideology of the party. The partys official name was All-Union Communist Party in 1925, Stalins political purge greatly affected the partys configuration, as many party members were executed or sentenced for slave labour. Happening during the timespan of the Great Purge, fascism had ascened to power in Italy, seeing this as a potential threat, the Party actively sought to form collective security alliances with Anti-fascist western powers such as France and Britain
Communist Party of the Soviet Union
–
Khrushchev succeeded Stalin as the Soviet leader. His rule is best known for his liberalization of political and social life, and the end of terror as a means of social control
Communist Party of the Soviet Union
Communist Party of the Soviet Union
–
The Brezhnev era is commonly referred to by historians as the
Era of Stagnation, a term coined by CPSU General Secretary Gorbachev
Communist Party of the Soviet Union
–
Gorbachev, the last leader of the CPSU and the Soviet Union, as seen in 1986
18.
Leader of the Soviet Union
–
In the ideology of Vladimir Lenin the head of the Soviet state was a collegiate body of the vanguard party. Being the head of the communist party, the office of the General Secretary was the highest in the Soviet Union until 1990, the President of the Soviet Union, an office created in March 1990, replaced the General Secretary as the highest Soviet political office. This vote weakened the Party and its hegemony over the Soviet Union, after the failed August Coup the Vice President was replaced by an elected member of the State Council of the Soviet Union. Vladimir Lenin was voted the Chairman of the Council of Peoples Commissars of the USSR on 30 December 1922 by the Congress of Soviets. His health, at the age of 53, declined from effects of two bullet wounds, later aggravated by three strokes which culminated with his death in 1924, irrespective of his health status in his final days, Lenin was already losing much of his power to Stalin. By the end of the decade, Rykov merely rubber stamped the decisions predetermined by Stalin, Stalins early policies pushed for rapid industrialisation, nationalisation of private industry and the collectivisation of private plots created under Lenins New Economic Policy. As leader of the Politburo, Stalin consolidated near-absolute power by 1938 after the Great Purge, Nazi German troops invaded the Soviet Union in June 1941, but were repulsed by the Soviets in December. On Stalins orders, the USSR launched a counter-attack on Nazi Germany, Stalin died in March 1953, his death triggered a power struggle in which Nikita Khrushchev after several years emerged victorious against Georgy Malenkov. Khrushchev denounced Stalin on two occasions, in 1956 and 1962 and his policy of de-Stalinisation earned him many enemies within the party, especially from old Stalinist appointees. Many saw this approach as destructive and destabilising, a group known as Anti-Party Group tried, but failed, to oust Khrushchev from office in 1957. As Khrushchev grew older, his behavior became worse, usually making decisions without discussing or confirming them with the Politburo. In 1965, on the orders of the Politburo, Mikoyan was forced to retire, the USSR in the post-Khrushchev 1960s was governed by a collective leadership. The Era of Stagnation, a term coined by Mikhail Gorbachev, was a period marked by low socio-economic efficiency in the country. Yuri Andropov succeeded Brezhnev in his post as General Secretary in 1982 and he was 68 years old at the time. In 1983 Andropov was hospitalised, and rarely met up at work to chair the politburo meetings due to his declining health, following Andropovs death 15 months after his appointment, an even older leader,72 year old Konstantin Chernenko was elected to the General Secretariat. His rule lasted for more than a year until his death 13 months later on 10 March 1985. Mikhail Gorbachev was elected to the General Secretariat by the Politburo on 11 March 1985 and he was 54 years old at the time. He also opened up the management of and decision-making within the Soviet Union and these twin policies were known as perestroika and glasnost respectively
Leader of the Soviet Union
–
Mikhail Gorbachev
Leader of the Soviet Union
–
Union coat of arms
Leader of the Soviet Union
–
Vladimir Lenin (1870–1924)
Leader of the Soviet Union
–
Joseph Stalin (1878–1953)
19.
KGB
–
The KGB, an initialism for Komitet gosudarstvennoy bezopasnosti, was the main security agency for the Soviet Union from 1954 until its break-up in 1991. Formed in 1954, as a successor of such preceding agencies as the Cheka, NKGB, and MGB. It was the government agency of union-republican jurisdiction, acting as internal security, intelligence. Similar agencies were constituted in each of the republics of the Soviet Union aside from Russia and consisted of ministries, state committees. The KGB was a service and was governed by army laws and regulations. While most of the KGB archives remain classified, two documentary sources are available. After the dissolution of the USSR, the KGB was split into the Federal Security Service, after breaking away from the Republic of Georgia in the early 1990s with Russian help, the self-proclaimed Republic of South Ossetia established its own KGB. A1983 Time magazine article reported that the KGB was the worlds most effective information-gathering organization, at best, the compromised spy was either returned to the Soviet Union or was declared persona non grata and expelled by the government of the target country. The illegal resident spied, unprotected by diplomatic immunity, and worked independently of Soviet diplomatic, in its early history, the KGB valued illegal spies more than legal spies, because illegal spies infiltrated their targets with greater ease. The KGB classified its spies as agents and controllers, the false-identity or legend assumed by a USSR-born illegal spy was elaborate, using the life of either a live double or a dead double. In the 1980s, the glasnost liberalisation of Soviet society provoked KGB Chairman Vladimir Kryuchkov to lead the August 1991 Soviet coup détat attempt to depose President Mikhail Gorbachev, the thwarted coup détat ended the KGB on 6 November 1991. The KGBs successors are the police agency FSB and the espionage agency SVR. The GRU recruited the ideological agent Julian Wadleigh, who became a State Department diplomat in 1936, the NKVDs first US operation was establishing the legal residency of Boris Bazarov and the illegal residency of Iskhak Akhmerov in 1934. Throughout, the Communist Party USA and its General Secretary Earl Browder, helped NKVD recruit Americans, working in government, business, moreover, when Whittaker Chambers, formerly Alger Hisss courier, approached the Roosevelt Government—to identify the Soviet spies Duggan, White, and others—he was ignored. To wit, British Manhattan Project team physicist Klaus Fuchs was the agent of the Rosenberg spy ring. In 1944, the New York City residency infiltrated the top secret Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico, by recruiting Theodore Hall, the KGB failed to rebuild most of its US illegal resident networks. The aftermath of the Second Red Scare and the crisis in the CPUSA hampered recruitment, the last major illegal resident, Rudolf Abel, was betrayed by his assistant, Reino Häyhänen, in 1957. One notable KGB success occurred in 1967, with the recruitment of US Navy Chief Warrant Officer John Anthony Walker
KGB
–
Lubyanka Building in 1991
KGB
–
The 1954
ukase establishing the KGB.
KGB
–
KGB Regulation seen in Museum of Genocide Victims Vilnius
KGB
–
Vladimir Putin worked as a high-ranking KGB officer in
Dresden,
East Germany during the 1980s.
20.
Russian language
–
Russian is an East Slavic language and an official language in Russia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan and many minor or unrecognised territories. Russian belongs to the family of Indo-European languages and is one of the four living members of the East Slavic languages, written examples of Old East Slavonic are attested from the 10th century and beyond. It is the most geographically widespread language of Eurasia and the most widely spoken of the Slavic languages and it is also the largest native language in Europe, with 144 million native speakers in Russia, Ukraine and Belarus. Russian is the eighth most spoken language in the world by number of native speakers, the language is one of the six official languages of the United Nations. Russian is also the second most widespread language on the Internet after English, Russian distinguishes between consonant phonemes with palatal secondary articulation and those without, the so-called soft and hard sounds. This distinction is found between pairs of almost all consonants and is one of the most distinguishing features of the language, another important aspect is the reduction of unstressed vowels. Russian is a Slavic language of the Indo-European family and it is a lineal descendant of the language used in Kievan Rus. From the point of view of the language, its closest relatives are Ukrainian, Belarusian, and Rusyn. An East Slavic Old Novgorod dialect, although vanished during the 15th or 16th century, is considered to have played a significant role in the formation of modern Russian. In the 19th century, the language was often called Great Russian to distinguish it from Belarusian, then called White Russian and Ukrainian, however, the East Slavic forms have tended to be used exclusively in the various dialects that are experiencing a rapid decline. In some cases, both the East Slavic and the Church Slavonic forms are in use, with different meanings. For details, see Russian phonology and History of the Russian language and it is also regarded by the United States Intelligence Community as a hard target language, due to both its difficulty to master for English speakers and its critical role in American world policy. The standard form of Russian is generally regarded as the modern Russian literary language, mikhail Lomonosov first compiled a normalizing grammar book in 1755, in 1783 the Russian Academys first explanatory Russian dictionary appeared. By the mid-20th century, such dialects were forced out with the introduction of the education system that was established by the Soviet government. Despite the formalization of Standard Russian, some nonstandard dialectal features are observed in colloquial speech. Thus, the Russian language is the 6th largest in the world by number of speakers, after English, Mandarin, Hindi/Urdu, Spanish, Russian is one of the six official languages of the United Nations. Education in Russian is still a choice for both Russian as a second language and native speakers in Russia as well as many of the former Soviet republics. Russian is still seen as an important language for children to learn in most of the former Soviet republics, samuel P. Huntington wrote in the Clash of Civilizations, During the heyday of the Soviet Union, Russian was the lingua franca from Prague to Hanoi
Russian language
–
Russian language street sign in
Russia.
Russian language
–
Russian minimarket in
Limassol, Cyprus; translation: "Teremok market. Russian goods. Phone number: 96 74 19 63"
Russian language
–
This page from an "ABC" book printed in Moscow in 1694 shows the letter
П.
Russian language
–
The
Ostromir Gospels of 1056 is the second oldest
East Slavic book known, one of many medieval
illuminated manuscripts preserved in the
Russian National Library.
21.
Romanization of Russian
–
Romanization of the Russian alphabet is the process of transliterating the Russian language from the Cyrillic script into the Latin alphabet. Scientific transliteration, also known as the International Scholarly System, is a system that has used in linguistics since the 19th century. It is based on the Czech alphabet and formed the basis of the GOST, OST8483 was the first Soviet standard on romanization of Russian, introduced in 16 October 1935. This standard is an equivalent of GOST 16876-71 and was adopted as a standard of the COMECON. GOST7. 79-2000 System of Standards on Information, Librarianship and it is the official standard of both Russia and the Commonwealth of Independent States. Machine readable passports is an adoption of an ICAO stadards for travel documents and it was used in Russian passports for a short period during 2010–2013. The standard was substituted in 2013 by GOST R ISO/IEC 7501-1-2013, which does not contain romanization, ISO/R9, established in 1954 and updated in 1968, was the adoption of the scientific transliteration by the International Organization for Standardization. It covers Russian and seven other Slavic languages, ISO9,1995 is the current transliteration standard from ISO. It is based on its predecessor ISO/R9,1968, which it deprecates, for Russian, the UNGEGN, a Working Group of the United Nations, in 1987 recommended a romanization system for geographical names, which was based on the 1983 version of GOST 16876-71. It may be found in some international cartographic products, American Library Association and Library of Congress romanization tables for Slavic alphabets are used in North American libraries and in the British Library since 1975. The formal, unambiguous version of the system requires some diacritics and two-letter tie characters, British Standard 2979,1958 is the main system of the Oxford University Press, and a variation was used by the British Library to catalogue publications acquired up to 1975. The BGN/PCGN system is relatively intuitive for Anglophones to read and pronounce, the portion of the system pertaining to the Russian language was adopted by BGN in 1944 and by PCGN in 1947. In Soviet international passports, transliteration was based on French rules, in 1997, with the introduction of new Russian passports, a diacritic-free English-oriented system was established by the Ministry of Internal Affairs, but this system was also abandoned in 2010. In 2006, GOST52535. 1-2006 was adopted, which defines technical requirements and standards for Russian international passports, in 2010, the Federal Migratory Service of Russia approved Order No. 26, stating that all names in the passports issued after 2010 must be transliterated using GOST52535. 1-2006. The standard was abandoned in 2013, finally in 2013, Order No.320 of the Federal Migratory Service of Russia came into force. It states that all names in the passports must be transliterated using the ICAO system. This system differs from the GOST52535. 1-2006 system in two things, ц is transliterated into ts, ъ is transliterated into ie, Scholarly ¹ Some archaic letters are transcribed in different ways
Romanization of Russian
–
Sergei Gonchar (Cyrillic: Сергей Гончар), an NHL and international ice hockey player, wearing a sweater with Roman characters
Romanization of Russian
–
A street sign in Russia with the name of the street shown in Cyrillic and Latin characters
22.
Hungary
–
Hungary is a unitary parliamentary republic in Central Europe. With about 10 million inhabitants, Hungary is a member state of the European Union. The official language is Hungarian, which is the most widely spoken language in Europe. Hungarys capital and largest metropolis is Budapest, a significant economic hub, major urban areas include Debrecen, Szeged, Miskolc, Pécs and Győr. His great-grandson Stephen I ascended to the throne in 1000, converting the country to a Christian kingdom, by the 12th century, Hungary became a middle power within the Western world, reaching a golden age by the 15th century. Hungarys current borders were established in 1920 by the Treaty of Trianon after World War I, when the country lost 71% of its territory, 58% of its population, following the interwar period, Hungary joined the Axis Powers in World War II, suffering significant damage and casualties. Hungary became a state of the Soviet Union, which contributed to the establishment of a four-decade-long communist dictatorship. On 23 October 1989, Hungary became again a democratic parliamentary republic, in the 21st century, Hungary is a middle power and has the worlds 57th largest economy by nominal GDP, as well as the 58th largest by PPP, out of 188 countries measured by the IMF. As a substantial actor in several industrial and technological sectors, it is both the worlds 36th largest exporter and importer of goods, Hungary is a high-income economy with a very high standard of living. It keeps up a security and universal health care system. Hungary joined the European Union in 2004 and part of the Schengen Area since 2007, Hungary is a member of the United Nations, NATO, WTO, World Bank, the AIIB, the Council of Europe and Visegrád Group. Well known for its cultural history, Hungary has been contributed significantly to arts, music, literature, sports and science. Hungary is the 11th most popular country as a tourist destination in Europe and it is home to the largest thermal water cave system, the second largest thermal lake in the world, the largest lake in Central Europe, and the largest natural grasslands in Europe. The H in the name of Hungary is most likely due to historical associations with the Huns. The rest of the word comes from the Latinized form of Medieval Greek Oungroi, according to an explanation the Greek name was borrowed from Proto-Slavic Ǫgǔri, in turn borrowed from Oghur-Turkic Onogur. Onogur was the name for the tribes who later joined the Bulgar tribal confederacy that ruled the eastern parts of Hungary after the Avars. The Hungarians likely belonged to the Onogur tribal alliance and it is possible they became its ethnic majority. The Hungarian endonym is Magyarország, composed of magyar and ország, the word magyar is taken from the name of one of the seven major semi-nomadic Hungarian tribes, magyeri
Hungary
–
Italian fresco depicting a Hungarian warrior shooting backwards
Hungary
–
Flag
Hungary
–
Hungarian raids in the 10th century
Hungary
–
King
Saint Stephen, the first
King of Hungary, converted the nation to Christianity
23.
1956 Hungarian Uprising
–
Though leaderless when it first began, it was the first major threat to Soviet control since the USSRs forces drove out Nazi Germany from its territory at the end of World War II. The revolt began as a student demonstration, which attracted thousands as they marched through central Budapest to the Parliament building, calling out on the using a van with loudspeakers. A student delegation, entering the building to try to broadcast the students demands, was detained. When the delegations release was demanded by the demonstrators outside, they were fired upon by the State Security Police from within the building, one student died and was wrapped in a flag and held above the crowd. This was the start of the revolution, as the news spread, disorder and violence erupted throughout the capital. The revolt spread quickly across Hungary and the government collapsed, thousands organised into militias, battling the ÁVH and Soviet troops. Pro-Soviet communists and ÁVH members were executed or imprisoned and former political prisoners were released and armed. Radical impromptu workers councils wrested municipal control from the ruling Hungarian Working Peoples Party, a new government formally disbanded the ÁVH, declared its intention to withdraw from the Warsaw Pact, and pledged to re-establish free elections. By the end of October, fighting had almost stopped and a sense of normality began to return, after announcing a willingness to negotiate a withdrawal of Soviet forces, the Politburo changed its mind and moved to crush the revolution. On 4 November, a large Soviet force invaded Budapest and other regions of the country, the Hungarian resistance continued until 10 November. Over 2,500 Hungarians and 700 Soviet troops were killed in the conflict, mass arrests and denunciations continued for months thereafter. By January 1957, the new Soviet-installed government had suppressed all public opposition, public discussion about this revolution was suppressed in Hungary for more than 30 years. Since the thaw of the 1980s, it has been a subject of intense study, at the inauguration of the Third Hungarian Republic in 1989,23 October was declared a national holiday. During World War II Hungary was a member of the Axis powers, allied with the forces of Nazi Germany, Fascist Italy, Romania, in 1941, the Hungarian military participated in the occupation of Yugoslavia and the invasion of the Soviet Union. The Red Army was able to back the Hungarian and other Axis invaders. Fearing invasion, the Hungarian government began negotiations with the Allies. These ended when Nazi Germany invaded and occupied the country and set up its own pro-Axis regime, both Hungarian and German forces stationed in Hungary were subsequently defeated when the Soviet Union invaded the country in 1945. Towards the end of World War II, the Soviet Army occupied Hungary, immediately after World War II, Hungary was a multiparty democracy, and elections in 1945 produced a coalition government under Prime Minister Zoltán Tildy
1956 Hungarian Uprising
–
A destroyed Soviet T34-85 in Budapest, 1956. The turret is lying behind the hull.
1956 Hungarian Uprising
–
Flag of Hungary, with the communist coat of arms cut out. The flag with a hole became the symbol of the revolution. (Photographed at the "Corvin köz")
1956 Hungarian Uprising
–
A recreation of the statue of
Joseph Stalin, toppled during the revolution (currently on display at
Memento Park near Budapest)
1956 Hungarian Uprising
–
Flyer. Imre Nagy, Head of government – 1956.10.27
24.
Chairman of the KGB
–
The Chairman of the KGB was the head of the Soviet KGB. He was assisted by one or two First Deputy Chairmen, and four to six Deputy Chairmen, in 1934-1943 the Soviet State Security agency was part of Peoples Commissariat of Interior as Main Directorate of State Security. Director of GUGB was the first deputy of Peoples Commissar of Interior, the State Within a State, The KGB and Its Hold on Russia – Past, Present, and Future. KGB, The Secret Works Of Soviet Secret Agents, bantam Books ISBN 0-553-23275-4 Vadim J. Birstein. The Perversion Of Knowledge, The True Story of Soviet Science, westview Press ISBN 0-8133-4280-5 John Dziak, Chekisty, A History of the KGB, Lexington Books ISBN 978-0-669-10258-1 Sheymov, Victor. ISBN 5-93518-035-9 KGB Information Center from FAS. org Chebrikov, Viktor M. et al. eds, the religion of betrayal - book by Yuri Shchekochikhin
Chairman of the KGB
–
Felix Dzerzhinsky (1877–1926)
Chairman of the KGB
–
Flag of the KGB commanders
Chairman of the KGB
Chairman of the KGB
–
Genrikh Yagoda (1891–1936)
25.
Stavropol Region
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Stavropol Krai is a federal subject of Russia in the North Caucasian Federal District. Its administrative center is the city of Stavropol, the krai encompasses the central part of the Fore-Caucasus and most of the northern slopes of Caucasus Major. The krai was established as North Caucasus Krai on October 17,1924, after undergoing numerous administrative changes, it was renamed Ordzhonikidze Krai, after Sergo Ordzhonikidze, in March 1937, and Stavropol Krai on January 12,1943. In 1970-1978, Mikhail Gorbachev, a native of Stavropol Krai and he left the region for Moscow in 1978, when he was promoted to a Secretary of the Central Committee of the CPSU, to become the Partys General Secretary and the nations leader 7 years later. Since 1991, CPSU lost all the power, and the head of the Krai Administration, the Charter of Stavropol Krai is the fundamental law of the region. The Legislative Assembly of Stavropol Krai is the regional standing legislative body. The Legislative Assembly exercises its authority by passing laws, resolutions, the krai administration supports the activities of the Governor who is the highest official and acts as guarantor of the observance of the krai Charter in accordance with the Constitution of Russia. According to the 2010 Census, the population was 2,786,281, up from 2,735,139 recorded in the 2002 Census. The population of the krai is concentrated in the basins of the Kuban River and of the Kuma River. The Kuban Cossacks are now generally considered ethnic Russians, even though they are of Ukrainian origin, the 2010 Census counted thirty-three ethnic groups of more than 2,000 persons each, making this federal subject one of the most multiethnic in Russia. It is estimated that the proportion of ethnicities in this group is the same as that of the declared group. Birth Rate,11.22 per 1,000 Death Rate,13.32 per 1,000 Net Immigration, +3.5 per 1,000 NGR, -0. 21% per Year PGR, +0. 14% per Year Births,34,768 Deaths,33,356 According to a 2012 official survey 46. In addition, 19% of the population declares to be spiritual but not religious, 16% is atheist, Stavropol Krai is administratively divided into twenty-six districts and ten cities/towns. The districts are subdivided into nine towns of district subordinance, seven urban-type settlements. Irrigated agriculture is developed in the region. As of the beginning of 2001, Stavropol Krai had 3,361 km of irrigation canals, among the major irrigation canals are, Nevinnomyssk Canal, the trunk of the Kuban-Yegorlyk Irrigation System. The Great Stavropol Canal, transporting water from the Kuban River eastward across the entire krai, the Terek-Kuma Canal and Kuma-Manych Canal, transporting water from the Terek River via the Kuma River to the East Manych River. Закона №132-кз от2 декабря2015 г, «О поправках к Уставу Ставропольского края»
Stavropol Region
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The Krai Government seat
Stavropol Region
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Flag
Stavropol Region
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Don Cossacks
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Don Cossacks are Cossacks who settled along the middle and lower Don. As of 1992, by the decree of the Russian Federation. A number of Cossack communities have been reconstituted to further the Cossack cultural traditions, Don Cossacks have had a rich military tradition, playing an important part in the historical development of the Russian Empire and participating in most of its major wars. The name Cossack was widely used to free people as opposed to others with different standing in a feudal society. The word cossack was also applied to migrants, free-booters and bandits, the exact origins of Cossacks are unknown. More than two years ago the Scythians lived on the banks of the river Don. Many Scythian tombs have found in this area. Subsequently, the area was inhabited by the Khazars and the Polovtsians, the steppes of the Don River were called The Wild Field. The area was under the control of the Golden Horde. The first Christians to settle on the territories around the Don were the Jassi, after the fall of the Golden Horde in 1480, more Russian colonists started to expand onto this land from the Novgorod Republic after the Battle of Shelon and from neighboring Principality of Ryazan. Until the end of the 16th century, the Don Cossacks inhabited independent free territories, Cossacks of Ryazan are mentioned in 1444 as a defenders of Pereslavl-Zalessky against the units of Golden Horde and in a letter of Ivan III of Russia since 1502. After the Golden Horde fell in 1480, the area around the Don River was divided between the Crimean west side and the Nogai east side, in the course of time they turned into a united community and were called the Cossacks. At first the main occupation of these armed detachments was hunting and fishing—as well as the constant struggle against the Turks. Only later they began to settle and work on the land, the first records relating to the Cossack villages, the stanitsa, date back to 1549. In the year 1552 Don Cossacks under the command of Ataman Susar Fedorov joined the Army of Ivan the Terrible during the Siege of Kazan in 1552. On 2 June 1556 the Cossack regiment of Ataman Lyapun Filimonov, together with the Army of Moscovits comprising strelets, during the reign of Ivan the Terrible, the ataman Yermak Timofeyevich went on an expedition to conquer Siberia. After defeating Khan Kuchum in the fall of 1582 and occupying Isker, the detachment led by Bogdan Bryazga, passed through the lands of the Konda-Pelym Voguls and reached the walls of the town of Samarovo. Taken by surprise by the attack, the Ostyaks surrendered
Don Cossacks
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Flag of the Don Cossacks. [
citation needed]
Don Cossacks
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Don cossacks in Paris in 1814
Don Cossacks
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1915 drawing from
The War Illustrated showing a charging Don Cossack. The figure is portrayed in peacetime dress uniform
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This article incorporates text from a work in the public domain: "Biography of Yuri Andropov" (PDF). Soviet Life. Embassy of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (323): 1B. 1983. Retrieved 19 August 2013.
