1.
Eastern Slavic naming customs
–
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
–
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.
Soviet space program
–
The Soviet space program comprised the rocketry and space exploration programs conducted by the former Soviet Union from the 1930s until its dissolution in 1991. Sergey Korolev was the head of the design group, his official title was chief designer. Because of the programs classified status, and for value, announcements of the outcomes of missions were delayed until success was certain. Ultimately, as a result of Mikhail Gorbachevs policy of glasnost in the 1980s, with the collapse of the Soviet Union, Russia and Ukraine inherited the program. Russia created the Russian Aviation and Space Agency, now known as the Roscosmos State Corporation, on August 18,1933, GIRD launched the first Soviet liquid-fueled rocket Gird-09, and on November 25,1933, the first hybrid-fueled rocket GIRD-X. In 1940-41 another advance in the reactive propulsion field took place, during the 1930s Soviet rocket technology was comparable to Germanys, but Joseph Stalins Great Purge severely damaged its progress. Many leading engineers were killed, and Korolev and others were imprisoned in the Gulag, under the direction of Dimitri Ustinov, Korolev and others inspected the drawings. Korolevs OKB-1 design bureau was dedicated to the liquid-fueled cryogenic rockets he had been experimenting with in the late 1930s, ultimately, this work resulted in the design of the R-7 Semyorka intercontinental ballistic missile which was successfully tested in August 1957. The Soviet space program was tied to the USSRs Five-Year Plans, nonetheless, the first Soviet rocket with animals aboard launched in July 1951, the two dogs were recovered alive after reaching 101 km in altitude. Two months ahead of Americas first such achievement, this and subsequent flights gave the Soviets valuable experience with space medicine, Plans were approved for Earth-orbiting satellites to gain knowledge of space, and four unmanned military reconnaissance satellites, Zenit. Further planned developments called for a manned Earth orbit flight by 1964, with closed-loop life support systems and electrical rocket engines, and launched from large orbiting space stations, these plans were much more ambitious than Americas goal of landing on the moon. The Soviet space program was secondary in military funding to the Strategic Rocket Forces ICBMs, missions were planned based on rocket availability or ad hoc reasons, rather than scientific purposes. Korolev planned to move forward with the Soyuz craft and N-1 heavy booster that would be the basis of a permanent manned space station and manned exploration of the Moon. Yangel had been Korolevs assistant but with the support of the military he was given his own bureau in 1954 to work primarily on the military space program. This had the rocket engine design team including the use of hypergolic fuels. He also continued to develop his own heavy booster designs similar to Korolevs N-1 both for applications and for cargo flights into space to build future space stations. Glushko was the rocket engine designer but he had a personal friction with Korolev. Chelomei benefited from the patronage of Khrushchev and in 1960 was given the job of developing a rocket to send a manned craft around the moon
Soviet space program
–
R-7 rockets like the one on display at the
All-Soviet Exhibition Centre were the first reliable means to transport objects into Earth orbit.
Soviet space program
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Konstantin Tsiolkovsky, a pioneer of space exploration science.
Soviet space program
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"Chief Designer"
Sergei Korolev (left), with the "father of the Soviet atomic bomb"
Igor Kurchatov, and "Chief Theoretician"
Mstislav Keldysh in 1956
Soviet space program
–
A replica of
Sputnik 1
3.
Russian SFSR
–
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 SFSR
–
Flag (1954–1991)
4.
Kremlin Wall Necropolis
–
Burials in the Kremlin Wall Necropolis in Moscow began in November 1917, when 240 pro-Bolshevik victims of the October Revolution were buried in mass graves at Red Square. It is centered on both sides of Lenins Mausoleum, initially built in wood in 1924 and rebuilt in granite in 1929–1930, in 1925–1927 burials in the ground were stopped, funerals were now conducted as burials of cremated ash in the Kremlin wall itself. Burials in the ground only resumed with Mikhail Kalinins funeral in 1946, the practice of burying dignitaries at Red Square ended with the funeral of Konstantin Chernenko in March 1985. The Kremlin Wall Necropolis was designated a landmark in 1974. The moat was lined with a fortress wall, and spanned by three bridges connecting the Kremlin to the posad. From 1776–1787 Matvey Kazakov built the Kremlin Senate that today provides a backdrop for the present-day Necropolis, throughout the 18th century the unused, neglected fortifications deteriorated and were not properly repaired until the 1801 coronation of Alexander I. In one season the moat with bridges and adjacent buildings was replaced with a span of paved square. More reconstruction followed in the 19th century, the stretch of Kremlin wall south from Senate Tower was badly damaged in 1812 by the explosion at the Kremlin Arsenal set off by the retreating French troops. Eventually, the structures of the towers were deemed sound enough to be left in place. Peters bastions were razed, The Kremlin wall facing Red Square was rebuilt shallower than before, in July 1917, hundreds of soldiers of the Russian Northern Front were arrested for mutiny and desertion and locked up in Daugavpils fortress. Later,869 Dvinsk inmates were transported to Moscow, here, the jailed soldiers launched a hunger strike, public support to them threatened to develop in citywide riot. On September 22,593 inmates were released, the rest were left behind bars until the October Revolution, the released soldiers, collectively called Dvintsy, stayed in the city as a cohesive unit, based in Zamoskvorechye District and openly hostile to the ruling Provisional Government. Immediately after the October Revolution in Saint Petersburg, Dvintsy became the force of the Bolsheviks in Moscow. Late at night of October 27–28 a detachment of two hundred men marching north to Tverskaya Street confronted the loyalist forces near the State Historical Museum on the Red Square. In the fighting 70 of the Dvintsy, including their company commander Sapunov, were killed at the barricades, on the following day the loyalists, led by Colonel Konstantin Ryabtsev, succeeded in taking over the Kremlin. They gunned down the surrendered Red soldiers at the Kremlin Arsenal wall, more were killed as the Bolsheviks stormed the Kremlin, finally taking control on the night of November 2–3. Voices reached us across the place, and the sound of picks. Mountains of dirt and rock were piled high near the base of the wall, climbing these we looked down into two massive pits, ten or fifteen feet deep and fifty yards long, where hundreds of soldiers and workers were digging in the light of huge fires
Kremlin Wall Necropolis
–
Tombs of
Suslov,
Stalin,
Kalinin,
Dzerzhinsky,
Brezhnev in front of the Kremlin wall. Tomb of
Yuri Andropov, which stands between Kalinin's and Dzerzhinsky's, is obstructed by trees. The Mausoleum is immediately to the right.
Kremlin Wall Necropolis
–
As recently as in 1800, the site of Necropolis was a boggy
moat spanned with stone bridges.
Kremlin Wall Necropolis
–
November 10, 1917. Mass grave on Red Square
Kremlin Wall Necropolis
–
The first wooden Mausoleum in 1925
5.
Pilot (aircraft)
–
A pilot or aviator is a person who controls the flight of an aircraft by operating its directional flight controls. Other aircrew members such as attendants, mechanics and ground crew, are not classified as aviators. In recognition of the qualifications and responsibilities, most militaries and many airlines worldwide award aviator badges to their pilots. The first recorded use of the aviator was in 1887, as a variation of aviation, from the Latin avis. The term aviatrix, now archaic, was used for a female aviator. These terms were used more in the days of aviation, when airplanes were extremely rare. For example, a 1905 reference work described the Wright brothers first airplane, The weight, the Aéro-Club de France delivered the first certificate to Louis Blériot in 1908—followed by Glenn Curtiss, Léon Delagrange, and Robert Esnault-Pelterie. The absolute authority given to the pilot in command derives from that of a ships captain, when flying for an airline, pilots are usually referred to as airline pilots, with the pilot in command often referred to as the captain. While the flight decks of U. S. and European airliners do have ex-military pilots, military training and flying, while rigorous, is fundamentally different in many ways from civilian piloting. Pilots licensing in Canada is similar to the United States, the Aeronautics Act of 1985 and Canadian Aviation Regulations provide rules for pilots in Canada. Retirement age is provided by each airline with some set to age 60, in 1930, the Air Commerce Act established pilot licensing requirements for American civil aviation. Commercial airline pilots in the United States have a retirement age of 65. Military pilots fly with the forces of a government or nation-state. Their tasks involve combat and non-combat operations, including direct hostile engagements, military pilots undergo specialized training, often with weapons. Examples of military pilots include fighter pilots, bomber pilots, transport pilots, military pilots also serve as flight crews on aircraft for government personnel, such as Air Force One and Air Force Two in the United States. Military pilots are trained with a different syllabus than civilian pilots and this is due to the different aircraft, flight goals, flight situations and chains of responsibility. Many military pilots do transfer to civilian-pilot qualification after they leave the military, the person controlling a remotely piloted UAV may be referred to as its pilot or operator. Most jurisdictions have restrictions on the use of UAVs which have limited their use in controlled airspace, UAVs have mostly been limited to military
Pilot (aircraft)
–
U.S. Army test pilot
Lt. F.W. "Mike" Hunter wearing a
flight suit in October 1942
Pilot (aircraft)
–
Hot air balloon pilot and passenger in basket
Pilot (aircraft)
–
Pilots landing a
Boeing 777
Pilot (aircraft)
–
F-16 pilot in flight
6.
Polkovnik
–
This article is about the OF-5 rank Polkovnik in mostly Slavophone countries. For the equivalent rank in Anglophone armed forces see Colonel, in Austria, Polkovnik is a military rank in Slavic countries mostly which corresponds to a colonel in English-speaking states, and oberst in several German-speaking and Scandinavian countries. The term originates from an ancient Slavic word for a group of soldiers, however, in Cossack Hetmanate and Slobozhanshchyna, polkovnyk was an administrative rank similar to a governor. Usually this word is translated as colonel, however the transliteration is also in common usage, Polkovnik began as a commander of a distinct group of troops, arranged for battle. The rank of polkovnik was also used in the Estonian army until 1924, the rank was legalized by Table of Ranks that placed it in the 6th grade as the second-top field officer, right under the brigadier. A promotion to the rank of polkovnik gave a privilege of hereditary nobility, the Red Army reintroduced the polkovnik rank in 1935, together with a number of other former Russian ranks, and it has been used in many ex-USSR countries, including Russia, to the present day. The Rank insignia to Polkovnik is as follows, Ranks and rank insignia of the Russian armed forces until 1917 Ranks and rank insignia of the Red Army 1935–1940, 1940–1943 Ranks and rank insignia of the Soviet Army 1943–1955, and. By the end of the 17th century, the title of the assignment became a de facto rank as such and started to denote the commanding officer of the entire regiment. During the rule of Sanacja in the period between World War I and World War II, a number of officers were promoted to the rank. During the Invasion of Poland in 1939, the Polish divisions were commanded by officers of many grades, in fact 22 divisions out of 42 were commanded by colonels in 1939. The pułkownicy also commanded units of all sizes, from divisions down to mere battalions, in the 18th century, a polkovnyk was a leader of a palanka, a territorial unit of the Zaporozhian Host. The military council elected a palanka polkovnyk to serve for a term of one year and he represented the Kosh Otaman in the palanka and had significant powers, including the right to condemn Cossacks to the death penalty. At the time of liquidation of the Zaporozhian Host by the Russian government in 1775, as symbol of office a polkovnyk wore a pernach in his belt. In the Registered Cossack Army of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth in the 16th and 17th centuries, a polkovnyk commanded a regiment, after the reform of the Cossack army by hetman Mykhailo Doroshenko in the 1620s there were six Cossack regiments, each comprising one thousand Cossacks. Polkovnyks were elected by the Cossack Council subject to the approval of the Polish government, a polkovnyk obtained a salary for his service, and enjoyed considerable privileges. After the Sejm of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth adopted the Ordination of 1638, during Khmelnytsky Uprising and in the Cossack Hetmanate, a polkovnyk headed a territorial administrative unit, the regiment. In modern Ukraine, the rank of polkovnyk resembles the similar rank of the former Soviet Army. Історія України в особах, термінах, назвах і поняттях. -Луцьк, Вежа,2000
Polkovnik
–
Polkovnik of the Russian Empire (1793)
Polkovnik
–
Polkovnik of the Red Army (1937)
Polkovnik
–
Cossack Polkovnik of a registered regiment from the left-bank Ukraine
7.
Soviet Air Forces
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The Soviet Air Forces was the official designation of one of the air forces of the Soviet Union. The other was the Soviet Air Defence Forces, the Air Forces were formed from components of the Imperial Russian Air Service in 1917, and faced their greatest test during World War II. The groups were involved in the Korean War, and dissolved along with the Soviet Union itself in 1991–92. Former Soviet Air Forces assets were divided into several air forces of former Soviet republics. March of the Pilots was its anthem, the All-Russia Collegium for Direction of the Air Forces of the Old Army was formed on 20 December 1917. This was a Bolshevik aerial headquarters initially led by Konstantin Akashev and it became the Directorate of the USSR Air Forces on 28 March 1924, and then the Directorate of the Workers-Peasants Red Army Air Forces on 1 January 1925. Gradually its influence on aircraft design became greater, from its earliest days, the force mimicked ground forces organization especially in the 1930s, by which time it was made up of air armies, aviation corps, aviation divisions, and aviation regiments. At first, the I-16 proved superior to any Luftwaffe fighters, however, the Soviets refused to supply the plane in adequate numbers, and their aerial victories were soon squandered because of their limited use. Later, Bf-109s delivered to Francos Spanish Nationalist air forces secured air superiority for the Nationalists, on 19 November 1939, VVS headquarters was again titled the Main Directorate of the Red Army Air Forces under the WPRA HQ. Between 1933 and 1938, the Soviet government planned and funded missions to break numerous world aviation records, not only did aviation records and achievements become demonstrations of the USSRs technological progress, they also served as legitimization of the socialist system. With each new success, Soviet press trumpeted victories for socialism, furthermore, Soviet media idolized record-breaking pilots, exalting them not only as role models for Soviet society, but also as symbols of progress towards the socialist-utopian future. The early 1930s saw a shift in focus away from collectivist propaganda. In the case of aviation, the government began glorifying people who utilized aviation technology instead of glorifying the technology itself. Pilots such as Valery Chkalov, Georgy Baydukov, Alexander Belyakov, in May 1937, Stalin charged pilots Chkalov, Baydukov, and Belyakov with the mission to navigate the first transpolar flight in history. On 20 June 1937, the aviators landed their ANT-25 in Vancouver, a month later, Stalin ordered the departure of a second crew to push the boundaries of modern aviation technology even further. The public reaction to the flights was euphoric. The media called the pilots Bolshevik knights of culture and progress, Soviet citizens celebrated Aviation Day on 18 August with as much zeal as they celebrated the October Revolution anniversary. Literature including poems, short stories, and novels emerged celebrating the feats of the aviator-celebrities, feature films like Victory, Tales of Heroic Aviators, and Valery Chkalov reinforced the positive hero imagery, celebrating the aviators individuality within the context of a socialist government
Soviet Air Forces
–
Soviet
Tu-95 escorted by U.S. Navy
F-14 Tomcat
Soviet Air Forces
–
Flag of the Soviet Air Force
Soviet Air Forces
–
An air-to-air right underside rear view of a Soviet
MiG-25 Foxbat aircraft carrying four AA-6 Acrid missiles
Soviet Air Forces
–
Soviet
MiG-29 Fulcrum fighter aircraft in 1989.
8.
Vostok 1
–
Vostok 1 was the first spaceflight of the Vostok programme and the first manned spaceflight in history. The Vostok 3KA space capsule was launched on April 12,1961 from Baikonur Cosmodrome with Soviet cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin, the orbital spaceflight consisted of a single orbit around Earth which skimmed the upper atmosphere at 169 kilometers at its lowest point. The flight took 108 minutes from launch to landing, Gagarin parachuted to the ground separately from his capsule after ejecting at 7 km altitude. The Space Race between the Soviet Union and the United States, the two Cold War superpowers, began just before the Soviet Union launched the worlds first artificial satellite, Sputnik 1, both countries wanted to develop spaceflight technology quickly, particularly by launching the first successful human spaceflight. The Soviet Union secretly pursued the Vostok programme in competition with the United States Project Mercury, Vostok launched several precursor unmanned missions between May 1960 and March 1961, to test and develop the Vostok rocket family and space capsule. These missions had varied degrees of success, but the final two—Korabl-Sputnik 4 and Korabl-Sputnik 5—were complete successes, see also Selection and training of the Vostok programme The Vostok 1 capsule was designed to carry a single cosmonaut. Yuri Gagarin,27, was chosen as the pilot of Vostok 1, with Gherman Titov. These assignments were formally made on April 8, four days before the mission, the final decision of who would fly the mission relied heavily on the opinion of the head of cosmonaut training, Nikolai Kamanin. In an April 5 diary entry, Kamanin wrote that he was undecided between Gagarin and Titov. The only thing that keeps me from picking is the need to have the person for the one day flight. Kamanin was referring to the mission, Vostok 2, compared to the relatively short single-orbit mission of Vostok 1. When Gagarin and Titov were informed of the decision during a meeting on April 9, Gagarin was very happy, on April 10, this meeting was reenacted in front of television cameras, so there would be official footage of the event. This included a speech by Gagarin. Gagarin was examined by a team of doctors prior to his flight, one doctor gave her recollection of the events in an interview with RT in April 2011, Gagarin looked more pale than usual. He was unsociable and quiet, which was not like him at all and he would answer by nodding or a short yes to all questions. Sometimes he would start humming some tunes and we geared him up, and hugged. And I said, Yuri, everything will be fine, unlike later Vostok missions, there were no dedicated tracking ships available to receive signals from the spacecraft. Instead they relied on the network of stations, also called Command Points, to communicate with the spacecraft
Vostok 1
–
Yuri Gagarin aboard Vostok 1, as televised to launch control
Vostok 1
Vostok 1
–
Model of the Vostok spacecraft with its upper stage, on display in
Frankfurt Airport 's "Russia in Space" exhibition
Vostok 1
–
Part of the Vostok 1 instrument panel
9.
Hero of the Soviet Union
–
The title Hero of the Soviet Union was the highest distinction in the Soviet Union, awarded personally or collectively for heroic feats in service to the Soviet state and society. The award was established on May 5,1934, by the Central Executive Committee of the Soviet Union, earlier heroes were retroactively eligible for these items. A hero could be awarded the title again for a subsequent heroic feat with an additional Gold Star medal, an additional Order of Lenin was not given until 1973. The practice of awarding the title multiple times was abolished by the Supreme Soviet of the USSR in 1988 during perestroika,44 foreign citizens were awarded the title. The title was given posthumously, though often without the actual Gold Star medal given. The title could be revoked only by the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet, the total number of people who were awarded this title is 12,755. The great majority of them received it during World War II, sixty-five people were awarded the title for actions related to the Soviet-Afghan War, which lasted from 1979 until 1989. Valentina Grizodubova, a pilot, was the first woman to become a Hero of the Soviet Union for her international womens record for a straight-line distance flight. Zoya Kosmodemyanskaya, a Soviet partisan, was the first woman to become a Hero of the Soviet Union during World War II, in addition,101 people received the award twice. A second award entitled the recipient to have a bronze bust of his or her likeness with an inscription erected in his or her hometown. Two famous Soviet fighter pilots, Aleksandr Pokryshkin and Ivan Kozhedub were three times Heroes of the Soviet Union. A third award entitled the recipient to have his/her bronze bust erected on a pedestal in Moscow, near the Palace of the Soviets. The only individuals to receive the four times were Marshal Georgy Zhukov. The original statute of the Hero of the Soviet Union, however, did not provide for a fourth title, both Zhukov and Brezhnev received their fourth titles under controversial circumstances contrary to the statute, which remained largely unchanged until the award was abolished in 1991. Zhukov was awarded a time for his large accomplishments on the occasion of his 60th birthday on December 1,1956. There is some speculation that Zhukovs fourth Hero medal was for his participation in the arrest of Beria in 1953, brezhnevs four awards further eroded the prestige of the award because they were birthday gifts, on the occasions of his 60th, 70th, 72nd and 75th birthdays. Such practices halted in 1988 due to a decision of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR, by the 1970s, the award had been somewhat devalued. Important political and military persons had been awarded on the occasions of their anniversaries rather than for any immediate heroic activity, all Soviet cosmonauts, starting from Yuri Gagarin, as well as foreign citizens who participated in Soviet cosmic program as cosmonauts, received Hero award for each flight
Hero of the Soviet Union
–
Gold Star Medal of the Hero of the Soviet Union
Hero of the Soviet Union
–
Marshal Georgy Zhukov (center) wearing three Hero of the Soviet Union medals and Marshal Konstantin Rokossovsky (right) wearing two
Hero of the Soviet Union
–
Hero-Fortress of Brest
Hero of the Soviet Union
–
Hero-City of
Moscow
10.
Order of Lenin
–
The Order of Lenin, named after the leader of the Russian October Revolution, was the highest decoration bestowed by the Soviet Union. Those who were awarded the titles Hero of the Soviet Union and it was also bestowed on cities, companies, factories, regions, military units and ships. Corporate entities, various institutions and military units who received the said Order applied the full name of the order into their official titles. The order was established by the Central Executive Committee on April 6,1930, the first design of the Order of Lenin was sculpted by Pyotr Tayozhny and Ivan Shadr based on sketches by Ivan Dubasov. It was made by Goznak of silver with some lightly gold-plated features and it was a round badge with a central disc featuring Vladimir Lenins profile surrounded by smokestacks, a tractor and a building, possibly a power plant. A thin red-enamelled border and a circle of wheat panicles surrounded the disc, at the top was a gold-plated hammer and sickle emblem, and at the bottom were the Russian initials for USSR in red enamel. Only about 800 of this design were minted, the second design was awarded from 1934 until 1936. This was a gold badge, featuring an silver plated disc bearing Lenins portrait. The disc is surrounded by two golden panicles of wheat, and a red flag with LENIN in Cyrillic script, a red star is placed on the left and the hammer and sickle emblem at the bottom, both in red enamel. The third design was awarded from 1936 till 1943, design was same as previous, but central disc was gray enamelled and Lenins portrait was separate piece made of platinum fixed by rivets. The fourth design was awarded from 1943 till 1991, design was same as previous, but was worn as a medal suspended from a ribbon. The badge was worn by screwback on the left chest without ribbon. Later it was worn as a suspended from a red ribbon with pairs of yellow stripes at the edges. The ribbon bar is of the same design, the portrait of Lenin was originally a riveted silver piece. For a time it was incorporated into a gold badge. The first Order of Lenin was awarded to the newspaper Komsomolskaya Pravda on 23 May 1930, also among the first ten recipients were five industrial companies, three pilots, and the Secretary to the Central Executive Committee Avel Enukidze. The first person to be awarded a second Order of Lenin was the pilot Valery Chkalov in 1936, another pilot, Vladimir Kokkinaki, became the first to receive a third Order in 1939. The first five recipients, a German and four Americans, received the award for helping in the reconstruction of Soviet industry
Order of Lenin
–
The Order of Lenin, type 1
11.
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.
12.
USSR
–
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
USSR
–
Vladimir Lenin addressing a crowd with Trotsky, 1920
USSR
–
Flag
USSR
–
Stalin and
Nikolai Yezhov, head of the
NKVD. After Yezhov was executed, he was
edited out of the image.
USSR
13.
Cosmonaut
–
An astronaut or cosmonaut is a person trained by a human spaceflight program to command, pilot, or serve as a crew member of a spacecraft. Although generally reserved for professional space travelers, the terms are applied to anyone who travels into space, including scientists, politicians, journalists. Starting in the 1950s up to 2002, astronauts were sponsored and trained exclusively by governments, with the suborbital flight of the privately funded SpaceShipOne in 2004, a new category of astronaut was created, the commercial astronaut. The criteria for what constitutes human spaceflight vary, the Fédération Aéronautique Internationale Sporting Code for astronautics recognizes only flights that exceed an altitude of 100 kilometers. In the United States, professional, military, and commercial astronauts who travel above an altitude of 50 miles are awarded astronaut wings. As of 17 November 2016, a total of 552 people from 36 countries have reached 100 km or more in altitude, of which 549 reached low Earth orbit or beyond. Of these,24 people have traveled beyond Low Earth orbit, to either lunar or trans-lunar orbit or to the surface of the moon, the three astronauts who have not reached low Earth orbit are spaceplane pilots Joe Walker, Mike Melvill, and Brian Binnie. As of 17 November 2016, under the U. S. definition 558 people qualify as having reached space, of eight X-15 pilots who exceeded 50 miles in altitude, only one exceeded 100 kilometers. Space travelers have spent over 41,790 man-days in space, as of 2016, the man with the longest cumulative time in space is Gennady Padalka, who has spent 879 days in space. Peggy A. Whitson holds the record for the most time in space by a woman,377 days, dryden preferred cosmonaut, on the grounds that flights would occur in the cosmos, while the astro prefix suggested flight to the stars. Most NASA Space Task Group members preferred astronaut, which survived by common usage as the preferred American term, when the Soviet Union launched the first man into space, Yuri Gagarin in 1961, they chose a term which anglicizes to cosmonaut. In English-speaking nations, a space traveler is called an astronaut. The term derives from the Greek words ástron, meaning star, the first known use of the term astronaut in the modern sense was by Neil R. Jones in his short story The Deaths Head Meteor in 1930. The word itself had been known earlier, for example, in Percy Gregs 1880 book Across the Zodiac, astronaut referred to a spacecraft. In Les Navigateurs de lInfini of J. -H, rosny aîné, the word astronautique was used. The word may have inspired by aeronaut, an older term for an air traveler first applied to balloonists. An early use in a publication is Eric Frank Russells poem The Astronaut in the November 1934 Bulletin of the British Interplanetary Society. NASA applies the term astronaut to any crew member aboard NASA spacecraft bound for Earth orbit or beyond, NASA also uses the term as a title for those selected to join its Astronaut Corps
Cosmonaut
–
NASA Astronaut
Bruce McCandless II using a
Manned Maneuvering Unit outside
Space Shuttle Challenger on shuttle mission
STS-41-B in 1984.
Cosmonaut
–
Alan Shepard aboard
Freedom 7
Cosmonaut
–
Yuri Gagarin, first human in space (1961)
Cosmonaut
–
Valentina Tereshkova, first woman in space (1963)
14.
Outer space
–
Outer space or just space, is the void that exists between celestial bodies, including Earth. The baseline temperature, as set by the radiation from the Big Bang, is 2.7 kelvins. In most galaxies, observations provide evidence that 90% of the mass is in a form, called dark matter. Data indicates that the majority of the mass-energy in the universe is a poorly understood vacuum energy of space which astronomers label dark energy. Intergalactic space takes up most of the volume of the Universe, there is no firm boundary where outer space starts. However the Kármán line, at an altitude of 100 km above sea level, is used as the start of outer space in space treaties. The framework for international law was established by the Outer Space Treaty. This treaty precludes any claims of sovereignty and permits all states to freely explore outer space. Despite the drafting of UN resolutions for the uses of outer space. Humans began the exploration of space during the 20th century with the advent of high-altitude balloon flights. Earth orbit was first achieved by Yuri Gagarin of the Soviet Union in 1961, due to the high cost of getting into space, manned spaceflight has been limited to low Earth orbit and the Moon. Outer space represents an environment for human exploration because of the dual hazards of vacuum. Microgravity also has an effect on human physiology that causes both muscle atrophy and bone loss. In addition to health and environmental issues, the economic cost of putting objects, including humans. In 350 BCE, Greek philosopher Aristotle suggested that nature abhors a vacuum and this concept built upon a 5th-century BCE ontological argument by the Greek philosopher Parmenides, who denied the possible existence of a void in space. Based on this idea that a vacuum could not exist, in the West it was held for many centuries that space could not be empty. As late as the 17th century, the French philosopher René Descartes argued that the entirety of space must be filled, in ancient China, there were various schools of thought concerning the nature of the heavens, some of which bear a resemblance to the modern understanding. In the 2nd century, astronomer Zhang Heng became convinced that space must be infinite, extending well beyond the mechanism that supported the Sun, the surviving books of the Hsüan Yeh school said that the heavens were boundless, empty and void of substance
Outer space
–
The original
Magdeburg hemispheres (lower left) used to demonstrate Otto von Guericke's vacuum pump (right)
Outer space
–
The interface between the Earth's surface and outer space. The
Kármán line at a height of 100 km (62 mi) is shown. The layers of the atmosphere are drawn to scale. Objects within them, such as the International Space Station, are not.
Outer space
–
This is an artist's concept of the
metric expansion of space, where a volume of the Universe is represented at each time interval by the circular sections. At left is depicted the rapid
inflation from the initial state, followed thereafter by steady expansion to the present day, shown at right.
Outer space
–
Part of the
Hubble Ultra-Deep Field image showing a typical section of space containing galaxies interspersed by deep vacuum. Given the finite
speed of light, this view covers the last 13 billion years of the history of outer space.
15.
Vostok (spacecraft)
–
The Vostok was a type of spacecraft built by the Soviet Union. The first human spaceflight in history was accomplished on this spacecraft on April 12,1961, the spacecraft was part of the Vostok programme in which six manned spaceflights were made from 1961–63. Two further manned space flights were made in 1964 and 1965 by Voskhod spacecraft, by the late 1960s both were superseded by the Soyuz spacecraft, which are still used as of 2017. The Vostok spacecraft was designed for use both as a camera platform and as a manned spacecraft. This dual-use design was crucial in gaining Communist Party support for the program, the basic Vostok design has remained in use for some 40 years, gradually adapted for a range of other unmanned satellites. The descent module design was reused, in modified form. The craft consisted of a spherical descent module, which housed the cosmonaut, instruments and escape system, and a conical instrument module, which contained propellant and the engine system. On reentry, the cosmonaut would eject from the craft at about 7,000 m and descend via parachute, the reason for this was that the Vostok descent module made an extremely rough landing that could have left a cosmonaut seriously injured. The ejector seat also served as a mechanism in the event of a launch vehicle failure. If an accident occurred in the first 40 seconds after liftoff, from 40 to 150 seconds into launch, ground controllers could issue a manual shutdown command to the booster. When the launch vehicle fell to a low altitude, the cosmonaut would eject. Higher altitude failures after shroud jettison would involve detaching the entire spacecraft from the booster, one problem that was never adequately resolved was the event of a launch vehicle malfunction in the first 20 seconds, when the ejector seat would not have enough time to deploy its parachute. Molodsov stated that Chief Designer Sergei Korolev felt absolutely terrible about the provisions for crew escape on the Vostok during the opening seconds of launch. There were several models of the Vostok leading up to the manned version, the Vostok 3KA was the spacecraft used for the first human spaceflights. They were launched from Baikonur Cosmodrome using Vostok 8K72K launch vehicles, the first flight of a Vostok 3KA occurred on March 9,1961. The first flight with a crew—Vostok 1 carrying Yuri Gagarin—took place on April 12,1961, the last flight—Vostok 6 carrying the first woman in space, Valentina Tereshkova—took place on June 16,1963. A total of 8 Vostok 3KA spacecraft were flown,6 of them with a human crew, Specifications for this version are, Reentry Module, Vostok SA. SA stands for Spuskaemiy apparat - descent system, PA stands for Priborniy otsek - instrument section
Vostok (spacecraft)
–
Model of Vostok spacecraft with 3rd stage of launcher
Vostok (spacecraft)
–
Vostok 1 return capsule in the RKK Energia Museum, Moscow
Vostok (spacecraft)
–
Vostok "Sharik"
16.
Spacecraft
–
A spacecraft is a vehicle, or machine designed to fly in outer space. Spacecraft are used for a variety of purposes, including communications, earth observation, meteorology, navigation, space colonization, planetary exploration, on a sub-orbital spaceflight, a spacecraft enters space and then returns to the surface, without having gone into an orbit. For orbital spaceflights, spacecraft enter closed orbits around the Earth or around other celestial bodies, robotic spacecraft used to support scientific research are space probes. Robotic spacecraft that remain in orbit around a body are artificial satellites. Only a handful of interstellar probes, such as Pioneer 10 and 11, Voyager 1 and 2, orbital spacecraft may be recoverable or not. By method of reentry to Earth they may be divided in non-winged space capsules, Sputnik 1 was the first artificial satellite. It was launched into an elliptical low Earth orbit by the Soviet Union on 4 October 1957, the launch ushered in new political, military, technological, and scientific developments, while the Sputnik launch was a single event, it marked the start of the Space Age. Apart from its value as a technological first, Sputnik 1 also helped to identify the upper atmospheric layers density and it also provided data on radio-signal distribution in the ionosphere. Pressurized nitrogen in the satellites false body provided the first opportunity for meteoroid detection, Sputnik 1 was launched during the International Geophysical Year from Site No. 1/5, at the 5th Tyuratam range, in Kazakh SSR. The satellite travelled at 29,000 kilometers per hour, taking 96.2 minutes to complete an orbit and this altitude is called the Kármán line. In particular, in the 1940s there were several test launches of the V-2 rocket, as of 2016, only three nations have flown manned spacecraft, USSR/Russia, USA, and China. The first manned spacecraft was Vostok 1, which carried Soviet cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin into space in 1961, there were five other manned missions which used a Vostok spacecraft. The second manned spacecraft was named Freedom 7, and it performed a sub-orbital spaceflight in 1961 carrying American astronaut Alan Shepard to an altitude of just over 187 kilometers, there were five other manned missions using Mercury spacecraft. Other Soviet manned spacecraft include the Voskhod, Soyuz, flown unmanned as Zond/L1, L3, TKS, China developed, but did not fly Shuguang, and is currently using Shenzhou. Except for the shuttle, all of the recoverable manned orbital spacecraft were space capsules. Manned space capsules The International Space Station, manned since November 2000, is a joint venture between Russia, the United States, Canada and several other countries, some reusable vehicles have been designed only for manned spaceflight, and these are often called spaceplanes. The first example of such was the North American X-15 spaceplane, the first reusable spacecraft, the X-15, was air-launched on a suborbital trajectory on July 19,1963. The first partially reusable spacecraft, a winged non-capsule, the Space Shuttle, was launched by the USA on the 20th anniversary of Yuri Gagarins flight
Spacecraft
–
More than 100 Russian
Soyuz manned spacecraft (TMA version shown) have flown since 1967, originally for a
Soviet manned lunar program, but currently supporting the
International Space Station.
Spacecraft
–
The US
Space Shuttle flew 135 times from 1981 to 2011, supporting Spacelab, Mir, and ISS. (Columbia's first launch shown)
Spacecraft
–
The first artificial satellite, Sputnik
Spacecraft
–
The first manned spacecraft,
Vostok 1
17.
Orbit
–
In physics, an orbit is the gravitationally curved path of an object around a point in space, for example the orbit of a planet about a star or a natural satellite around a planet. Normally, orbit refers to a regularly repeating path around a body, to a close approximation, planets and satellites follow elliptical orbits, with the central mass being orbited at a focal point of the ellipse, as described by Keplers laws of planetary motion. For ease of calculation, in most situations orbital motion is adequately approximated by Newtonian Mechanics, historically, the apparent motions of the planets were described by European and Arabic philosophers using the idea of celestial spheres. This model posited the existence of perfect moving spheres or rings to which the stars and it assumed the heavens were fixed apart from the motion of the spheres, and was developed without any understanding of gravity. After the planets motions were accurately measured, theoretical mechanisms such as deferent. Originally geocentric it was modified by Copernicus to place the sun at the centre to help simplify the model, the model was further challenged during the 16th century, as comets were observed traversing the spheres. The basis for the understanding of orbits was first formulated by Johannes Kepler whose results are summarised in his three laws of planetary motion. Second, he found that the speed of each planet is not constant, as had previously been thought. Third, Kepler found a relationship between the orbital properties of all the planets orbiting the Sun. For the planets, the cubes of their distances from the Sun are proportional to the squares of their orbital periods. Jupiter and Venus, for example, are respectively about 5.2 and 0.723 AU distant from the Sun, their orbital periods respectively about 11.86 and 0.615 years. The proportionality is seen by the fact that the ratio for Jupiter,5. 23/11.862, is equal to that for Venus,0. 7233/0.6152. Idealised orbits meeting these rules are known as Kepler orbits, isaac Newton demonstrated that Keplers laws were derivable from his theory of gravitation and that, in general, the orbits of bodies subject to gravity were conic sections. Newton showed that, for a pair of bodies, the sizes are in inverse proportion to their masses. Where one body is more massive than the other, it is a convenient approximation to take the center of mass as coinciding with the center of the more massive body. Lagrange developed a new approach to Newtonian mechanics emphasizing energy more than force, in a dramatic vindication of classical mechanics, in 1846 le Verrier was able to predict the position of Neptune based on unexplained perturbations in the orbit of Uranus. This led astronomers to recognize that Newtonian mechanics did not provide the highest accuracy in understanding orbits, in relativity theory, orbits follow geodesic trajectories which are usually approximated very well by the Newtonian predictions but the differences are measurable. Essentially all the evidence that can distinguish between the theories agrees with relativity theory to within experimental measurement accuracy
Orbit
–
The
International Space Station orbits above
Earth.
Orbit
–
Planetary orbits
Orbit
Orbit
–
Conic sections describe the possible orbits (yellow) of small objects around the earth. A projection of these orbits onto the gravitational potential (blue) of the earth makes it possible to determine the orbital energy at each point in space.
18.
Earth
–
Earth, otherwise known as the World, or the Globe, is the third planet from the Sun and the only object in the Universe known to harbor life. It is the densest planet in the Solar System and the largest of the four terrestrial planets, according to radiometric dating and other sources of evidence, Earth formed about 4.54 billion years ago. Earths gravity interacts with objects in space, especially the Sun. During one orbit around the Sun, Earth rotates about its axis over 365 times, thus, Earths axis of rotation is tilted, producing seasonal variations on the planets surface. The gravitational interaction between the Earth and Moon causes ocean tides, stabilizes the Earths orientation on its axis, Earths lithosphere is divided into several rigid tectonic plates that migrate across the surface over periods of many millions of years. About 71% of Earths surface is covered with water, mostly by its oceans, the remaining 29% is land consisting of continents and islands that together have many lakes, rivers and other sources of water that contribute to the hydrosphere. The majority of Earths polar regions are covered in ice, including the Antarctic ice sheet, Earths interior remains active with a solid iron inner core, a liquid outer core that generates the Earths magnetic field, and a convecting mantle that drives plate tectonics. Within the first billion years of Earths history, life appeared in the oceans and began to affect the Earths atmosphere and surface, some geological evidence indicates that life may have arisen as much as 4.1 billion years ago. Since then, the combination of Earths distance from the Sun, physical properties, in the history of the Earth, biodiversity has gone through long periods of expansion, occasionally punctuated by mass extinction events. Over 99% of all species that lived on Earth are extinct. Estimates of the number of species on Earth today vary widely, over 7.4 billion humans live on Earth and depend on its biosphere and minerals for their survival. Humans have developed diverse societies and cultures, politically, the world has about 200 sovereign states, the modern English word Earth developed from a wide variety of Middle English forms, which derived from an Old English noun most often spelled eorðe. It has cognates in every Germanic language, and their proto-Germanic root has been reconstructed as *erþō, originally, earth was written in lowercase, and from early Middle English, its definite sense as the globe was expressed as the earth. By early Modern English, many nouns were capitalized, and the became the Earth. More recently, the name is simply given as Earth. House styles now vary, Oxford spelling recognizes the lowercase form as the most common, another convention capitalizes Earth when appearing as a name but writes it in lowercase when preceded by the. It almost always appears in lowercase in colloquial expressions such as what on earth are you doing, the oldest material found in the Solar System is dated to 4. 5672±0.0006 billion years ago. By 4. 54±0.04 Gya the primordial Earth had formed, the formation and evolution of Solar System bodies occurred along with the Sun
Earth
–
"
The Blue Marble " photograph of Earth, taken during the
Apollo 17 lunar mission in 1972
Earth
–
Artist's impression of the early Solar System's planetary disk
Earth
–
World map color-coded by relative height
Earth
–
The summit of
Chimborazo, in Ecuador, is the point on Earth's surface farthest from its center.
19.
Soyuz 1
–
Soyuz 1 was a manned spaceflight of the Soviet space program. Launched into orbit on 23 April 1967 carrying cosmonaut Colonel Vladimir Komarov, the mission plan was complex, involving a rendezvous with Soyuz 2 and an exchange of crew members before returning to Earth. However, the launch of Soyuz 2 was called off due to thunderstorms, the flight was plagued with technical issues, and Komarov was killed when the descent module crashed into the ground due to a parachute failure. This was the first in-flight fatality in the history of spaceflight and it was the first Soviet manned spaceflight in over two years, and the first Soviet manned flight following the death of the Chief Designer of the space program Sergei Korolev. Komarov was launched on Soyuz 1 despite failures of the previous unmanned tests of the 7K-OK, Cosmos 133, a third attempted test flight was a launch failure, a launch abort triggered a malfunction of the launch escape system, causing the rocket to explode on the pad. The escape system successfully pulled the spacecraft to safety. S, space program with the Apollo 1 disaster. Yuri Gagarin was the pilot for Soyuz 1, and was aware of the design problems. He attempted to bump Komarov from the mission, knowing that the Soviet leadership would not risk a national hero on the flight, at the same time, Komarov refused to pass on the mission, even though he believed it to be doomed. He explained that he could not risk Gagarins life, Soyuz 1 was launched on 23 April 1967 at 00,32 UTC from Baikonur Cosmodrome carrying Komarov, the first Soviet cosmonaut to fly in space twice. Problems began shortly after launch when one solar panel failed to unfold, further problems with the orientation detectors complicated maneuvering the craft. By orbit 13, the stabilization system was completely dead. The crew of Soyuz 2 modified their mission goals, preparing themselves for a launch that would include fixing the solar panel of Soyuz 1, however, that night, thunderstorms at Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan affected the boosters electrical system, causing the mission to be called off. As a result of Komarovs report during the 13th orbit, the director decided to abort the mission. After 18 orbits, Soyuz 1 fired its retrorockets and reentered the Earths atmosphere, despite the technical difficulties up to that point, Komarov might still have landed safely. To slow the descent, first the drogue parachute was deployed, followed by the main parachute, however, due to a defect, the main parachute did not unfold, the exact reason for the main parachute malfunction is disputed. Komarov then activated the manually deployed reserve chute, but it became tangled with the drogue chute, as a result, the Soyuz reentry module fell to Earth in Orenburg Oblast almost entirely unimpeded, at about 40 m/s. A rescue helicopter spotted the descent module lying on its side with the parachute spread across the ground, the retrorockets then started firing which concerned the rescuers since they were supposed to activate a few moments prior to touchdown. By the time they landed and approached, the descent module was in flames with black smoke filling the air, the entire base of the capsule burned through
Soyuz 1
Soyuz 1
–
Vladimir Komarov
Soyuz 1
–
Soyuz 7K-OK (1967–1970)
20.
Yuri Gagarin Cosmonaut Training Center
–
The Yuri A. Gagarin State Scientific Research-and-Testing Cosmonaut Training Center is a Russian training facility responsible for training cosmonauts for their space missions. It is in Star City, Russia, a name which may refer to the facility itself or to the its grounds, the facility was originally known only as Military Unit 26266 or в/ч26266, and was a secret training base for Soviet Cosmonaut candidates. The site was chosen for its proximity to Moscow and other infrastructure that would be essential for its function, Chkalovsky Airbase, the densely forested area was originally a radar range with some existing infrastructure. Military physician Colonel Yevgeny Karpov was appointed as the first chief of the training centre or Tsentr Podgotovki Kosmonavtov on February 24,1960. These included specialists in heat exchange and hygiene, survival clothing, surgery, until April 2009 the center was owned and operated by the Russian Ministry of Defense in cooperation with Russian Federal Space Agency. The Cosmonaut Training Center was inaugurated on January 11,1960 in Star City outside Moscow, in 1969 it was named after Yuri Gagarin, the first man to fly in space. In 1995 the Cosmonaut Training Center and Air Force Test and Training regiment were merged and reorganized into its current form and these were coexisting or with time replaced one another inside two main training hangar halls of the Center. Room 1 houses the Salyut 4,6, Mir with Kvant, Kvant 2 and Kristall modules, room 1A houses the Soyuz simulators. Other rooms house the Salyut 7, Spektr, Priroda, Buran, Zarya and Zvezda simulators. Zero-gravity training aircraft for simulating weightlessness, including the MiG-15 UTI, Tupolev Tu-104, Training aircraft are based at the Russian Air Force base at Chkalovskiy airfield. A Medical observation clinic and testing facility, the original office of Yuri Gagarin and a number of monuments and busts to him and other cosmonauts. The first Soviet cosmonaut team, their lives, legacy, Yuri Gagarin Cosmonaut Training Center website
Yuri Gagarin Cosmonaut Training Center
–
The grounds of the Gagarin Cosmonauts Training Center
Yuri Gagarin Cosmonaut Training Center
–
Cosmonauts training with the Zarya training module in the pool of the GCTC.
Yuri Gagarin Cosmonaut Training Center
–
Mir training module
Yuri Gagarin Cosmonaut Training Center
–
ISS training modules
21.
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
22.
Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-15
–
The Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-15 was a jet fighter aircraft developed by Mikoyan-Gurevich OKB for the Soviet Union. The MiG-15 was one of the first successful jet fighters to incorporate swept wings to achieve high transonic speeds, the MiG-15 is often mentioned, along with the F-86 Sabre, as the best fighter aircraft of the Korean War. The MiG-15 is believed to have one of the most widely produced jet aircraft ever made. Licensed foreign production may have raised the total to over 18,000. The MiG-15 remains in service with the North Korean Air Force as an advanced trainer, the first turbojet fighter developed by Mikoyan-Gurevich OKB was the Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-9, which appeared in the years immediately after World War II. It used a pair of reverse-engineered German BMW003 engines, the MiG-9 was a troublesome design that suffered from weak, unreliable engines and control problems. Categorized as a jet fighter, it was designed with the straight-style wings common to piston-engined fighters. Stalin is said to have replied, What fool will sell us his secrets, however, he gave his consent to the proposal and Mikoyan, engine designer Vladimir Klimov, and others travelled to the United Kingdom to request the engines. Sample engines were purchased and delivered with blueprints, following evaluation and adaptation to Russian conditions, the windfall technology was tooled for mass-production as the Klimov RD-45 to be incorporated into the MiG-15. To take advantage of the new engine, the Council of Ministers ordered the Mikoyan-Gurevich OKB to build two prototypes for an advanced high-altitude daytime interceptor to defend against bombers. It was to have a top speed of 1,000 kilometres per hour, designers at MiGs OKB-155 started with the earlier MiG-9 jet fighter. The new fighter used Klimovs British-derived engines, swept wings, further experience and research during World War II later established that swept wings would give better performance at transonic speeds. At the end of World War II, the Soviets seized many of the assets of Germanys aircraft industry, the swept wing later proved to have a decisive performance advantage over straight-winged jet fighters when it was introduced into combat over Korea. The design that emerged had a mid-mounted 35-degree swept wing with a slight anhedral, Western analysts noted that it strongly resembled Kurt Tanks Focke-Wulf Ta 183, a later design than the Me 262 that never progressed beyond the design stage. While the majority of Focke-Wulf engineers were captured by Western armies, the MiG-15 bore a much stronger likeness than the American F-86 Sabre, which also incorporated German research. The MiG-15 does bear a resemblance in layout, sharing the high tailplane and nose mounted intake, although the aircraft are different in structure, details, the new MiG retained the previous straight-winged MiG-9s wing and tailplane placement while the F-86 employed a more conventional low-winged design. To prevent confusion during the height of combat the US painted their planes with bright stripes to distinguish them, the resulting prototypes were designated I-310. The I-310 was a fighter with 35-degree sweep in wings and tail
Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-15
–
MiG-15
Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-15
–
Front view of a MiG-15
Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-15
–
MiG-15 UTI Trainer version, Chino Planes Of Fame Air Museum
Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-15
–
MiG-15bis at Monino Aircraft Museum
23.
Gagarin, Smolensk Oblast
–
The towns former name is from that of the Gzhat River, which is of Baltic origin. In 1718, a village on the territory of modern Gagarin was transformed by a decree of Peter the Great to a transshipment landing stage, the town was built at the crossing of the Moscow road and the Smolensk road. By the plan of 1773, it was out in triangular form. One part paralleled the Gzhat River, another—the road to Moscow, on August 29,1812, in the village of Tsaryovo-Zaymishche near Gzhatsk, Mikhail Kutuzov accepted command of the Russian army. On the day of Napoleons invasion, the town was set on fire and it was near Gzhatsk where Denis Davydovs guerrilla group started to operate. Russian troops entered the town again on November 2,1812, when the town was rebuilt in 1817, the former regular layout was basically kept. On November 13,1917, Soviet power was proclaimed in Gzhatsk, a year later, there was a counterrevolutionary insurrection. During World War II, the town housed a factory, a sawmill, a brickyard, a roller-mill, a bakehouse complex, a weaving factory, a power station. In the course of the war, Gzhatsk was occupied by the Germans October 9,1941 to March 6,1943. In 1968, the town was renamed Gagarin in honor of the first person to travel into space, Yuri Gagarin, within the framework of administrative divisions, Gagarin serves as the administrative center of Gagarinsky District. As an administrative division, it is, together with one rural locality, as a municipal division, this administrative unit also has urban settlement status and is a part of Gagarinsky Municipal District. Gagarin is twinned with, Ratingen, Germany Mozhaysk, Russia Barysaw, Belarus Krupki, Постановление №261 от30 апреля2008 г. «Об утверждении реестра административно-территориальных единиц и территориальных единиц Смоленской области», в ред, Постановления №464 от27 июня2014 г. «О внесении изменений в реестр административно-территориальных единиц и территориальных единиц Смоленской области», Закон №129-з от28 декабря2004 г. Закона №51-з от30 мая2013 г, «О внесении изменений в отдельные областные Законы». Вступил в силу со дня официального опубликования, Опубликован, Вестник Смоленской областной Думы и Администрации Смоленской области, №14, часть I, стр
Gagarin, Smolensk Oblast
–
Monument to
Yuri Gagarin in the town
24.
Collective farm
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Collective farming and communal farming are various types of agricultural production in which multiple farmers run their holdings as a joint enterprise. This type of collective is often an agricultural cooperative in which member-owners engage jointly in farming activities, the process by which farmland is aggregated is called collectivization. In some countries, there have been state-run and cooperative-run variants, for example, the Soviet Union had both kolkhozy and sovkhozy, often denoted in English as collective farms and state farms, respectively. In general, collective farming is contrasted with family farming and with arrangements in which land was owned by landlords or aristocrats. Notable examples of collective farming include the kolkhozy that dominated Soviet agriculture between 1930 and 1991 and the Israeli kibbutzim, both are collective farms based on common ownership of resources and on pooling of labour and income in accordance with the theoretical principles of cooperative organizations. They differ radically, however, in the application of the cooperative principles relative to freedom of choice, a small group of farming or herding families living together on a jointly-managed piece of land is surely one of the most common living arrangements in all of human history. This has co-existed with, and competed with, more forms of ownership. Private ownership came to predominate in much of the Western world, the process by which Western Europes communal land became private is a fundamental question behind views of property, is it the legacy of historical injustices and crimes. Karl Marx believed that what he called primitive communism was ended by exploitative means he called primitive accumulation, by contrast Libertarian thinkers say that by the homestead principle, whoever is first to work on the land is the rightful owner. A calpulli consisted of a number of extended families with a presumed common ancestor. Each calpulli owned the land and granted the individual families the right to farm parts of it, the Huron had an essentially communal system of land ownership. The French Catholic missionary Gabriel Sagard described the fundamentals, the Huron had as much land as they need. As a result, the Huron could give families their own land, any Huron was free to clear the land and farm on the basis of usufruct. He maintained possession of the land as long as he continued to actively cultivate, once he abandoned the land, it reverted to communal ownership, and anyone could take it up for themselves. The Iroquois had a communal system of land distribution. The tribe owned all lands but gave out tracts to the different clans for further distribution among households for cultivation, the land would be redistributed among the households every few years, and a clan could request a redistribution of tracts when the Clan Mothers Council gathered. Those clans that abused their allocated land or otherwise did not take care of it would be warned, land property was really only the concern of the women, since it was the womens job to cultivate food and not the mens. The Clan Mothers Council also reserved certain areas of land to be worked by the women of all the different clans, food from such lands, called kěndiǔgwǎge hodiyěntho, would be used at festivals and large council gatherings
Collective farm
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Latter-day Iroquois longhouse housing several hundred people.
25.
Carpenter
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Carpentry in the United States is almost always done by men. With 98. 5% of carpenters being male, it was the fourth most male-dominated occupation in the country in 1999, Carpenters are usually the first tradesmen on a job and the last to leave. Carpenters normally framed post-and-beam buildings until the end of the 19th century and it is also common that the skill can be learned by gaining work experience other than a formal training program, which may be the case in many places. The word carpenter is the English rendering of the Old French word carpentier which is derived from the Latin carpentrius, the Middle English and Scots word was wright, which could be used in compound forms such as wheelwright or boatwright. An easy way to envisage this is that first fix work is all that is done before plastering takes place, second fix is done after plastering takes place. Second fix work, the construction of such as skirting boards, architraves. Carpentry is also used to construct the formwork into which concrete is poured during the building of such as roads. In the UK, the skill of making timber formwork for poured, or in situ, although the. work of a carpenter and joiner are often combined. Joiner is less common than the finish carpenter or cabinetmaker. The terms housewright and barnwright were used historically, now used by carpenters who work using traditional methods. Someone who builds custom concrete formwork is a form carpenter, wood is one of mankinds oldest building materials. The ability to shape wood improved with technological advances from the age to the bronze age to the iron age. The oldest surviving, complete text is Vitruvius ten books collectively titled De architectura which discusses some carpentry. By the 16th century sawmills were coming into use in Europe, the founding of America was partly based on a desire to extract resources from the new continent including wood for use in ships and buildings in Europe. In the 18th century part of the Industrial Revolution was the invention of the steam engine and these technologies combined with the invention of the circular saw led to the development of balloon framing which was the beginning of the decline of traditional timber framing. The 19th century saw the development of engineering and distribution which allowed the development of hand-held power tools, wire nails. In the 20th century portland cement came into use and concrete foundations allowed carpenters to do away with heavy timber sills. Also, drywall came into common use replacing lime plaster on wooden lath, plywood, engineered lumber and chemically treated lumber also came into use
Carpenter
–
Two German carpenters working (1975)
Carpenter
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Traditional carpenter's tools Ethnographic Museum of Western Liguria,
Cervo,
Italy
Carpenter
–
Carpenters in an Indian village
Carpenter
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Khati or Tarkhan, carpenter caste of the Panjab, India. Man sawing a plank.(1825)
26.
Bricklayer
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A bricklayer, which is related to but different from a mason, is a craftsman who lays bricks to construct brickwork. The terms also refer to personnel who use blocks to construct blockwork walls, in British and Australian English, a bricklayer is colloquially known as a brickie. A stone mason is a term applied to one who lays any combination of stones, cinder blocks, bricklaying may also enjoyed as a hobby. For example, Winston Churchill did bricklaying as a hobby, bricklaying and masonry is an ancient profession that even centuries later requires modern training. While some online sites say they can get you certified in a little as 30 days, most bricklayers today attend vocational or technical schools and receive in-depth and it is likely that as long as man seeks shelter from the elements, there will be work for these skilled professionals. While steel and glass make up the skyscraper, it is hard to imagine a world where the work of a mason is not held in high demand. Picture of an Ehrbarkeit Traditional belt-buckle of a bricklayer, fante also spent a significant portion of his youth apprenticed to his father. In Aleksandr Solzhenitsyns One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich, the title character, the long-running British childrens TV series Look and Read featured Bill the Brickie, who would build words with bricks to demonstrate the use of morphemes, such as -ed or -ing. Brick hod Construction Construction worker Guild Stonemasonry
Bricklayer
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Bricklayer in
Paoua,
Central African Republic
Bricklayer
–
The wounded bricklayer (es) large tapestry
cartoon by
Francisco de Goya
27.
Milkmaid
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A milkmaid was a girl or woman employed to milk dairy cows. She also used the milk to prepare dairy products such as cream, butter, many large houses employed milkmaids instead of having other staff do the work. The term milkmaid is not the equivalent of milkman in the sense of one who delivers milk to the consumer. The expression as smooth as a milk maids skin means exceptionally smooth and this phrase came about as a result of exposure to cowpox, which causes no serious symptoms, but does convey a partial immunity to the disfiguring disease smallpox. Thus, milkmaids lacked the pockmarked complexion common to smallpox survivors and this observation led to the development of the first vaccine. The legend of the Dun Cow and the milkmaid who guided the monks of Lindisfarne carrying the body of Saint Cuthbert to the site of the present city of Durham in 995 AD, there is a famous painting by Johannes Vermeer entitled The Milkmaid. Aelbert Cuyp, another Dutch artist, created the known as A Milkmaid. The eponymous heroine of Thomas Hardys Tess of the works as a milkmaid. The folktale The milkmaid and her pail is a tale about a milkmaid who spents her time daydreaming. The California native flower commonly called Milkmaids is named for its resemblance to the hat worn by milkmaids. Kid Harpoon has a song called Milkmaid, the video features actress Juno Temple. The The Twelve Days of Christmas 8th day mentions eight maids a-milking, the Philippines has a condensed milk brand called Milkmaid, a product of Alaska Milk Corporation. The San Francisco Milk Maid is cookbook author Louella Hill, author of Kitchen Creamery The character Milkmaid in August Strindbergs The Ghost Sonata
Milkmaid
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Milkmaid
Milkmaid
–
Milkmaid and
dairy cattle in Mangskog,
Sweden, 1911.
Milkmaid
–
A Danish milk maid with
shoulder yoke
28.
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
29.
World War II
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World War II, also known as the Second World War, was a global war that lasted from 1939 to 1945, although related conflicts began earlier. It involved the vast majority of the worlds countries—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing alliances, the Allies and the Axis. It was the most widespread war in history, and directly involved more than 100 million people from over 30 countries. Marked by mass deaths of civilians, including the Holocaust and the bombing of industrial and population centres. These made World War II the deadliest conflict in human history, from late 1939 to early 1941, in a series of campaigns and treaties, Germany conquered or controlled much of continental Europe, and formed the Axis alliance with Italy and Japan. Under the Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact of August 1939, Germany and the Soviet Union partitioned and annexed territories of their European neighbours, Poland, Finland, Romania and the Baltic states. In December 1941, Japan attacked the United States and European colonies in the Pacific Ocean, and quickly conquered much of the Western Pacific. The Axis advance halted in 1942 when Japan lost the critical Battle of Midway, near Hawaii, in 1944, the Western Allies invaded German-occupied France, while the Soviet Union regained all of its territorial losses and invaded Germany and its allies. During 1944 and 1945 the Japanese suffered major reverses in mainland Asia in South Central China and Burma, while the Allies crippled the Japanese Navy, thus ended the war in Asia, cementing the total victory of the Allies. World War II altered the political alignment and social structure of the world, the United Nations was established to foster international co-operation and prevent future conflicts. The victorious great powers—the United States, the Soviet Union, China, the United Kingdom, the Soviet Union and the United States emerged as rival superpowers, setting the stage for the Cold War, which lasted for the next 46 years. Meanwhile, the influence of European great powers waned, while the decolonisation of Asia, most countries whose industries had been damaged moved towards economic recovery. Political integration, especially in Europe, emerged as an effort to end pre-war enmities, the start of the war in Europe is generally held to be 1 September 1939, beginning with the German invasion of Poland, Britain and France declared war on Germany two days later. The dates for the beginning of war in the Pacific include the start of the Second Sino-Japanese War on 7 July 1937, or even the Japanese invasion of Manchuria on 19 September 1931. Others follow the British historian A. J. P. Taylor, who held that the Sino-Japanese War and war in Europe and its colonies occurred simultaneously and this article uses the conventional dating. Other starting dates sometimes used for World War II include the Italian invasion of Abyssinia on 3 October 1935. The British historian Antony Beevor views the beginning of World War II as the Battles of Khalkhin Gol fought between Japan and the forces of Mongolia and the Soviet Union from May to September 1939, the exact date of the wars end is also not universally agreed upon. It was generally accepted at the time that the war ended with the armistice of 14 August 1945, rather than the formal surrender of Japan
World War II
–
Clockwise from top left: Chinese forces in the
Battle of Wanjialing, Australian
25-pounder guns during the
First Battle of El Alamein, German
Stuka dive bombers on the
Eastern Front in December 1943, a U.S. naval force in the
Lingayen Gulf,
Wilhelm Keitel signing the
German Instrument of Surrender, Soviet troops in the
Battle of Stalingrad
World War II
–
The
League of Nations assembly, held in
Geneva,
Switzerland, 1930
World War II
–
Adolf Hitler at a German
National Socialist political rally in
Weimar, October 1930
World War II
–
Italian soldiers recruited in 1935, on their way to fight the
Second Italo-Abyssinian War
.jpg)
.JPG)
Memorial obelisk photo
