text:
|Thread Tools
|Search this Thread
|Display Modes
Forest Flyer
Joined: Aug 2007
Location: Mt Hood mud flow
Oddometer: 6,681
VERY nice pics, CMC !!
It seems to me that this person ^^^^ is the subject of more of your photos than the wonderful scenery....
Hmmm, methinks you kinda like her....
"got no problem with keeping truly roadless areas as wild....
On the other hand, if it has been logged or mined and roads already exist,,
...then that land should be open for public use" (peterman)
Joined: Dec 2009
Location: Hood River, Oregon
Oddometer: 1,467
Joined: Dec 2009
Location: Hood River, Oregon
Oddometer: 1,467
4 day ride with no plan!
Natalie and I had a couple days to get out, which turned into 4. As for the packing, well, didn't do much of that either! Went lite (this time we did remember the tent) and laughed at all the things that we had left behind. The ride started out simple enough with our route going SE over USFS and county back roads to Maupin on the Deschutes River for a early dinner at the Oasis Cafe.
Then it was off to Shaniko & Antelope to were the fun starts! For dual sport riders this is a must do at some point so add it to your bucket list if you have not done it already. From HWY 218 we turned off on Cold Camp Rd. and headed South to the Intersection with Gosner Rd.
You can also start in Madras, OR with the Ashwood Rd. to Ashwood then pick up Gosner Rd. from there heading East. Just a note, the Gosner Rd. turns into a slime pit if it rains (parts of it) so go when it's dry! The views along this road are great.
When you get to Horse Heaven and go over the pass with the old Cinnabar mine on the South side of the road you'll come upon the "Can dump" with some great views to the East looking out over the John Day River canyon.
After you drop down into the Cherry Creek Ranch and come to the narrow part of the canyon watch for the rock fins on either side of Cherry Creek.
The next bit of fun comes with crossing Cherry Creek! If the water is high but it was low today!
Then it on to the John Day River.
There are two spots to spend the night next to the river at the Lower Burnt Ranch river access points, the up stream one has a nice beach with boaters most of the time, the lower one is some times a little less crowded.
Morning on the John Day!
After packing up and getting back on the bikes we headed up river to Priest Hole and then East on the Twickenham Rd. taking Girds Creek and HWY 207 into Mitchell.
Road into Mitchell and Crashclay had one thing on her mind, FOOD! So we stopped at the Bridge Creek Cafe for a late breakfast.
The owners of the Cafe are great with tons of knowledge of the local area. Also filled up with gas (Regular only) then it was off to the South.
We took USFS Rd. 8 (Upper Bridge Creek Rd.) then #22, #3010, #30 to #42 and Big Summit Prairie.
From here we just tried to find all of the smallest old roads we could to make our way to Wolf Mountain to the East.
Wolf Mountain Fire lookout,
Looking East to the South fork of the John Day river and Aldrich Mountains.
Now off to the South Fork.
You just have to love spots like this when you have no real plan, tons of stuff to see and all you have to worry about is where the next gas is!
Natalie checking out the map and thinking a little South fork tour is in order.
Came across a large heard of Mtn. sheep standing in the middle of the road, must have been almost 60 of them in the road alone with a lot of babies but they are "FAST" and before I could get stopped and the camera out they were a 100 feet above me!
So this was about it for day two of our ride and about all the time I can put towards our ride report for now, so we will be back with photo's of day 3 & 4 later!
Joined: Dec 2009
Location: Hood River, Oregon
Oddometer: 1,467
4 day ride with no plan, part 2
Okay, the start of day 3 we headed North from the John Day area just west of Prairie City on Kenney Forks Rd. (18) then Camp Creek Rd. to the Middle Fork of the John Day. Our goal was to take Rd. 45 over to Olive Lake with a side trip to Indian Rock fire lookout.
Going up Rd. 45
Getting close to Indian Rock, the road goes right up to about 7400' with some great views to the South.
The last few hundred feet to the Lookout is on foot but well worth it!
The woman that was on fire watch was great, even offered to take our photo.
When ever I can find the survey markers I will take a photo of them, the really fun thing about this one was it was covered in Lady Bugs. By the time I took my camera out all but one of them had flown off. The lady bugs were all over the place on the summit, it was kind of odd to see so many in a small area!
Back to the bikes, it was also about now that we started to take notice of the clouds building to the South. The woman at the fire lookout had told us that the weather report said they were not going to build today and be a problem!
heading North again on Rd. 45 with the clouds getting a little larger.
It was also about here that we stopped taking photo's and started riding a bit faster. All of the big black clouds that were not supposed to be there were getting bigger and blacker. We knew that another ADV member "Ladukebob" (AKA, Dan) and his wife were supposed be camping at Olive Lake and we still had about 12 miles to go!
Lucky for us they were there (Thank you)with tarp up and trailer! Because the big black clouds caught up to us with a good supply of thunder, lightning, hail and buckets of rain!
After about 35 minutes it stopped about as fast as it started.
Olive Lake after the storm!
After visiting for a while it was time to put a few more miles on today (thanks to the rain, no more dust!) in order to cut the next days mileage down a bit. Had to be home tomorrow and really did not want to be doing any of it at night!
So the next stop Dale, OR.for gas.... NOT! The deal was, the sign said "Open" but we where late by a little and they were very "Closed"
So back on the bikes and off to Ukiah.... And we were lucky, the older woman running the one pump gas station (Reg. gas but so what, the bikes still make it down the road with it!) was sitting there reading a book enjoying the evening, it was 7:30pm on a Saturday night!
Then it was time to head across the street to the only other place "Open" for food and a real good helping of beer & NASCAR with the locals, it was a party!
On or way out of town looking for a spot to call home and spend the night. Ukiah is right behind and to the left of Natalie's helmet.
So, we did find a home for the night, along with bugling Elk at 1:30am that we had to finally run off due to the fact that it was very close to the tent (30') and getting closer (we were down wind and it had no idea that we were there) and having been around Elk I did not want it any closer! They don't prance off like Bambee they run though the trees like a fright train... And we heard this guy for almost a minute after we turned the head lamp on him.
Then at 2:30am our tent was surrounded by coyotes (no joke!). That was the last straw, the party was over! Elk, Deer, Cows and a whole host of other critters I can handle at night but coyotes, no can do! So I let them know my feelings on their encroachment and they went away and we had a great night's sleep until the sun came up...
After packing up and getting ready to go Natalie was still in need of a little more rest I guess, found her napping as we were trying to get out of our camp site. Got to love Giant Loop Great Basin bags, they are like big pillows for your bike...
After I got "Crashclay" going, she was saying something about lack of coffee (one thing we forgot to pack)! Then we rode USFS Rd. 21 to the West.
To, yes, a wonderful oasis called "Morrow County OHV Park" Hay, it was lunch and they have "The Landing Lodge" with good food and cold drinks! If your in that neck of the woods stop buy, the people that run the place are great... They are "closed" (the Lodge) on Tuesday.
Then we headed North to Hardmen
And you kind of loose the shade and trees.
We wanted to stay off the pavement as long as possible so we headed to Lone Rock by way of Buttermilk Rd.
Made it to Lone Rock and the local jail.
And then went down the block to get a photo of the church & Lone Rock! Yes that is the only rock in town, or I should say the only "BIG" rock.
Leaving & headed West
Made it to Condon, OR. 106 degrees and warming up!
Next stop we made was at the John Day at Cottonwood Crossing, and I think about here is where it went over 110 deg. and everything was dry again about 30 miles down the road.
Anyway, that's just about it for this ride. 60 miles left to go and a couple stops for photo's
Craig McCurdy screwed with this post 07-15-2012 at 07:35 AM
Gnarly Adventurer
Joined: Sep 2008
Location: Hydesville, Calif
Oddometer: 430
Wow what a trip. And you are correct it should be added to everyones bucket list,Thanks.
Bug Sister
Joined: Nov 2005
Location: Spokane Valley, WA (the dry side of the mountains)
Oddometer: 11,393
I always love the rides the two of you venture out on and appreciate you sharing them. This one has it all, flowers, ladybugs, great roads, beautiful scenery, interesting weather and meeting nice people along the way.
Keep the fun stuff coming.
lost in hood river
Joined: Feb 2008
Location: Hood River, Or.
Oddometer: 1,940
Not 5 minutes before those clouds opened up I was thinking to myself that if you guys were going to make an appearance now would be a good time Then I heard the familiar sound of the 950 chugging up the road. It was fun having you two in camp for a visit.
Great photos. I had to look up "Cinnabar" as I had never heard that word. I've just always known of that spot as the old Horse Heaven Mine and Ghost Town. So I learned a little more about that area this morning.
I'm hoping to make back over near Olive Lake this Fall on the bike to check out the town of Greenhorn which is the highest incorporated town in Oregon.
It's not an adventure until you cross a bridge , 2011 WR250, 2015 ktm 690r
Joined: Dec 2009
Location: Hood River, Oregon
Oddometer: 1,467
Another 3 day tour from Hood River
It's more like 2.5 days. It's still amazing to us just how far you can go in 7.5 hours even with a flat tire thrown in! The funny thing is we were just discussing flat tires at the PDX meet up the other night, jinx on us!
Luckily it was on Natalie's 650 with tubeless! One less nail on the WABDR.
It was a nice spot with shade and a bit of a view of Goat Rocks just before Walupt Lake & the fist stop since we left Hood River.
If you are wondering about what happened to sections 1 & 2 of the WABDR, we jumped over them as we had done them earlier and wanted to ride sections 3 & 4.
Flat fixed and the next stop at Walupt Lake.
From Walupt Lake to the town of Packwood the ride is though a tunnel of trees with cars, dust and wash board road. Buy the time we made Packwood at 5:00pm, we had decided it was time for a early dinner at Cliff Droppers (great burgers!)... And gas, oh ya, AIR (free, behind Chevron station) for a very low rear tire. "Note to self, buy a small 12 volt air pump and keep the small hand pump for a back up!"
Now you need to pull out your maps, from Packwood the WABDR jumps onto State HWY 12 for a push up over White Pass and down to Rimrock Lake. We made it to the left turn onto Bethel Ridge Rd. (1500). Just a word of warning, If you are a "Washboard connoisseur" this is your road!!! If you have any loose nuts & bolts you will find them or lose them on this climb. Or your mind, but that's hard to do if your already riding a dual sport!
Rimrock Lake below and Mt Adams to the South.
On the Bethel Ridge 324 Rd. (side note, look for the sign that says "Microwave Tower" the 324 Rd. sign is hiding.)
The low light was great but it was getting close to 8:00pm.
This was one of the nice sections of road going along the ridge!
Starting to get dark.
Okay, enough fun! Time to find a spot for the tent...
Found a great spot for the night, this was at about 5:30 in the morning with first light hitting Mt Adams, Goat Rocks and Rimrock Lake.
Happy bikes....
Just over 6000' so the first sunlight felt kind of good.
Checking out the maps. Don't forget to download GPS routes and maps of WA before you leave home! Hay, this is why is called "Adventure Riding"!
Right after packing up camp we started back into what turned us around last evening when we were looking for a camp site. Like all of us we were looking for a spot to camp and thinking a better one was just down the road but when we came up on this at dusk in the tree's (it was dark in here!) so we turned around and went back a couple hundred yards to the rim.
Would hate to try this when it's wet!
I would love to say some nasty things about 4X4's here but I won't because bikes can be just as guilty! But it would be nice if some people had some common sense and knew that it's this kind of stuff that get's roads gated & closed. Due to it's remoteness maybe not the case here???
Out of rut city and nice for a bit.
Then more fun! Where the 1400 Rd. cuts off to the left the wonderful world of rocks come back into play! Some great views also...
Go ahead, ask Natalie what she thinks of loose hardball and softball sized rocks I dare you! She was game though to find the limits of a G650GS, yup, found it, the loose steep downhill stuff, but she rode it out to the buzzer!
Looking NW, Rainer on the left.
They give you a couple of options here, "Super rattle" or just "Rattle and dust".
Looking down at the Naches River.
The last mile down to the Naches River, photo does not show it well but it's steep, loose & lots of fun! It's here that we figured out a few things we would like to change on the BMW handling wise
No more "steep and rocky" and a lunch stop with good food!
To keep our 3 day ride limit we turn and head West on 410.
Chinook Pass, looking East.
Mt Rainer and Tipsoo Lake.
Rainer from Reflection Lake.
Paradise Lodge
Then we got a real surprise and were able to sit on the side of the road and watch Mom and 2 cubs for about 20 minutes before they went into the tree's below us.
Packing up camp on Saturday morning.
Next stop Mt St Helens.
Road 26
Spirit Lake
The view from Smith Creek viewpoint.
From Windy Ridge.
Then it was back to Trout Lake around the North end of the Indian Heaven Wilderness for huckleberry milk shakes and then back to Hood River.
One last photo of Mt Adams to the North from the Trout Lake Valley.
Craig McCurdy screwed with this post 08-05-2012 at 11:44 AM
Forest Flyer
Joined: Aug 2007
Location: Mt Hood mud flow
Oddometer: 6,681
I got to see a black bear with twin cubs last Thursday at the West end of Johns Mill Rd.
I Hung out about 50 feet from the cubs, while I watched mom slowly circle around behind me.
She didn't seem too concerned, but my thumb stayed on the start button anyway.
The two cubs stood up on hind legs, very curious of me talking to them.
Then a fookin log truck came barreling down the hill, and sent one cub a few yards up a tree.
My first bear sighting for this year, and I get to see three at once
Oh yeah, nice report of a great trip, C&C...
"got no problem with keeping truly roadless areas as wild....
On the other hand, if it has been logged or mined and roads already exist,,
...then that land should be open for public use" (peterman)
Joined: Dec 2009
Location: Hood River, Oregon
Oddometer: 1,467
One more rider in the house!
You would think that with all the motorcycles around this house that my mountain bike riding son would have picked the motorcycle thing up years ago! Ya just can't make kids do things sometimes and it's never a good idea to push. But at 18 and a half and talking about it for two years he finally went and got his learners permit so that he could go and try it out and ride with me!
So in typical fashon for this house hold, I ran him up the nastiest little ride we have out our backdoor!
Mt Defiance, and he loved it!
Going up!
On top!
Maybe the Oregon backcountry route next summer after his first year off at college!
Forest Flyer
Joined: Aug 2007
Location: Mt Hood mud flow
Oddometer: 6,681
...or die trying
"got no problem with keeping truly roadless areas as wild....
On the other hand, if it has been logged or mined and roads already exist,,
...then that land should be open for public use" (peterman)
Joined: Dec 2009
Location: Hood River, Oregon
Oddometer: 1,467
One more ride!
We had to fit one more ride in before my son takes off for his first year at the University of Oregon. So off we went today to some old stomping grounds and great riding.
Forest Flyer
Joined: Aug 2007
Location: Mt Hood mud flow
Oddometer: 6,681
What about this Eastern OR/WA ride I heard something about?
"got no problem with keeping truly roadless areas as wild....
On the other hand, if it has been logged or mined and roads already exist,,
...then that land should be open for public use" (peterman)
Deej (Deric)
Joined: Aug 2006
Location: Washington State
Oddometer: 516
Love the KLX, but then again I'm kind of partial. hehe Hit 15,500 miles on mine. Gassing it up the other day.
I haven't been riding it as much as I did the past 7 years, since I got this....
I know I know.... But it sure is fun when I do jump on the little green machine.
I just wish the wife would ride her bike......
One out of four people in this country is mentally unbalanced.
Think of your three closest friends. If they seem normal
you're the one!
Joined: Dec 2009
Location: Hood River, Oregon
Oddometer: 1,467
Ahhhh, so that's what it look's like with the stock tank on it! We have it in a box but for our rides that is where it's going to stay.
|Thread Tools
|Search this Thread
|Display Modes
Linear Mode


text:
I love retrevo.com because you never know what will turn up.
This is an absolutely transporting experience!
The grandeur of this time-honored mountain is so clearly explored
while following the intrepid flyers. I am (nearly) speechless. My
French blood is very alive watching such beauty and courage.
You have also introduced me to VIMEO. Whoa, Nellie!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I am undone with JOY!
Thank you, merci beacoup, grazie!
Have a great day!

subset: commoncrawl


text:
Paine's 13 game win streak ends with loss to Morehouse
Posted: 01/29/2015 - Paine College's 13 game win streak came to an end Thursday night as they fall to Morehouse in Atlanta 62-61.
Posted: 01/29/2015 - Paine College's 13 game win streak came to an end Thursday night as they fall to Morehouse in Atlanta 62-61.
Posted: 01/29/2015 - Al Horford, Paul Millsap and Jeff Teague have been picked as reserves for the Eastern Conference All-Star team, giving the sizzling Atlanta Hawks three selections.
Updated: 01/29/2015 - We're just a week away from the Georgia state swimming championships. A lot of kids from the area going for titles. For underclassmen, this is another chance to make a splash with college coaches.
Posted: 01/29/2015 - Palace Malice has suffered a bruise and will stay in Aiken while the horse recovers, postponing the planned trip to Florida.
Posted: 01/29/2015 - Georgia Southern football will travel to play Clemson in a non-conference game in 2018. The Eagles have previously announced a home-and-home series with Kent State and will travel to the Golden Flashes that season as well.
Updated: 01/29/2015 - Keshun Sherrill hit a pair of free throws with under a second left as GRU Augusta upset Pembroke Wednesday night.
Posted: 01/28/2015 - Paul Millsap had 28 points and 15 rebounds, five other Atlanta players scored in double figures, and the Hawks stretched their franchise-record winning streak to 17 games in a row with a 113-102 victory over the Brooklyn Nets on Wednesday night.
Updated: 01/29/2015 - USC Aiken men fall to Armstrong on the road in Savannah, while the women knock off the Lady Pirates
Posted: 01/28/2015 - Tannasia Rhodes and Janisha Wilkerson earned Southern Intercollegiate Athletic Conference nods for Player of the Week and Newcomer of the Week for the week of Jan. 28. This makes three Newcomer of the Week awards for Wilkerson.
Posted: 01/28/2015 - Paine College's Denzel Dillingham has been named the SIAC player of the week.
Posted: 01/28/2015 - Current Ray Guy Award winner Tom Hackett in Augusta Wednesday afternoon. The Utah junior averaged over 46 yards a punt this year, with nearly half of them inside the 20, one of the big standards for being a great punter. Hackett is an Austrailian, who grew up playing Aussie rules football, so it was always nature for him to be kicking the ball, just a different shaped one.
Updated: 01/29/2015 - Kicking and punting the name of the game in augusta today. The sports council holding a clinic today and it's always cool when you have a hall of famer on hand to help out.
Updated: 01/27/2015 - High school basketball scores from across the CSRA for Tuesday, January 27th.
Posted: 01/27/2015 - The USC Aiken Lady Pacers are just a game out of first place. Coach Mike Brandt's team has done it with talent and some smoke and mirrors
Posted: 01/27/2015 - GRU Augusta is finally finding its stride and at the right time. The Jags have a big week ahead of them in the Peach Belt conference. It all starts with the top team in the division coming to Christenberry.
Posted: 01/27/2015 - Three University of South Carolina Aiken baseball standouts have been named to the 2015 Peach Belt Conference preseason all-conference team, which was announced Tuesday.
Posted: 01/26/2015 - Surprise, surprise. The Atlanta Hawks won again. After Sunday night's win over Minnesota, the winning streak has hit 16, tying the longest streak in the NBA this season.
Posted: 01/26/2015 - The man that's been there from the beginning is stepping down due to health concerns. Fox Creek's Russ Schneider has resigned from his position as athletic director and head coach of the Predators football team.
Posted: 01/25/2015 - Paul Millsap scored 20 points and Al Horford added 19 to lead Eastern Conference-leading Atlanta to a 112-100 victory over the Minnesota Timberwolves on Sunday night, extending the Hawks' franchise record with their 16th straight win.
Updated: 01/25/2015 - South Aiken's Rasool Clemons has committed to Ole Miss. The highly sought after prospect ended his official visit to Oxford with a verbal pledge to the Rebels program.
Updated: 01/25/2015 - The Atlanta Braves caravan made its way through Augusta Saturday afternoon with a mix of new and old names. Hall of Famer and broadcaster Don Sutton, minor leaguer Mallex Smith and new hitting coach Kevin Seitzer were in attendance.
Posted: 01/24/2015 - The GRU Augusta Jaguars continued the momentum from a strong halftime lead and posted over a 50 percent field-goal percentage to beat the Flagler Saints
Updated: 01/25/2015 - The Paine College Lions men's basketball team continues their reign atop the Southern Intercollegiate Athletic Conference by defeating Albany State on Saturday, 110-79. The win is the 12th straight for the Lions and ninth straight in conference.
Posted: 01/23/2015 - Paul Millsap scored 22 points, Jeff Teague added 17 and the Atlanta Hawks eclipsed the franchise record with their 15th straight victory, beating the Oklahoma City Thunder 103-93 on Friday night.
Updated: 01/24/2015 - High school basketball scores from Friday, January 23rd.


text:
Winter!: Prepare for holiday gaming!
TEEN, Comic Mischief, Mild Animated Violence, Violence
TRAITS (member-attributed "LIKES")
Final Fantasy Anthology offers two games in one package. This PlayStation release was created by Square Soft in response to demand from fans of the Final Fantasy series of role-playing games. Three compact discs contain the previously Japanese-only release Final Fantasy V and a 32-bit version of Japan's Final Fantasy VI (which was originally released in the U.S. for the Super NES as Final Fantasy III). In addition to these games, Final Fantasy Anthology contains a CD soundtrack by composer Nobuo Uematsu, made up of musical samples from both games.
In Final Fantasy V, you control five characters who are trying to stop an ancient evil from returning to the world. At the start of the game the winds suddenly stop, leaving the lands mysteriously still. The king of Tycoon Castle decides to investigate the Wind Crystal (the world's source of wind) and disappears in the process. His daughter Reina sets out to find him but discovers a large meteor blocking her path. She then meets up with Bartz, a youth who lives his life as a traveler and adventurer, and Galuf, an old man who had been injured and has no memory of his past.
When this group arrives at the sacred resting place of the Wind Crystal, they find the fabled gem shattered. The broken essence of the crystal speaks to them and reveals that they are the chosen ones - and are tasked to discover and stop an ancient evil. From here an epic adventure begins, one that will span three worlds on a quest for knowledge and the destruction of evil.
In addition to its storyline, Final Fantasy V contains other unique elements. Most notable of these features is the Job System. When certain events take place, items will be acquired which allow new "job classes" to be used. Each job has specific abilities and the more Ability Points gained from each job, the better a character can become at those particular skills. This allows almost complete freedom for character advancement and another aspect of strategy in party development.
In Final Fantasy VI, the opening story tells of an ancient war that took place a thousand years in the past. Battles were won and lost by the power of magic and the conflict came to be called the "War of the Magi." This terrible war devastated almost all of humanity. Now, centuries later, all magic has vanished from the world and high technology reigns in its place. Despite the power and advances gained through technology, there are those who would try and bring back the destructive powers of magic.
As the game begins, you control a group of rebels called the Returners, who will stand against an empire bent on power and world domination. Someone is trying to revive magic and possibly cause another apocalypse. It is your job to prevent this. Although magic is not found in the world it can be channeled through Magicite, the mineral-like essence of an Esper, which is a being of pure magic. Magicite can be used to cast spells to summon its respective Esper for a short amount of time and can even improve the abilities of a character. Since each type of Magicite offers different spells and abilities, there is some strategy in deciding which one will go to which party member.
Final Fantasy VI spans two "worlds" and involves up to fourteen different party members. Being the last Final Fantasy game originally released for the Super NES, it is quite lengthy and will take on average 40-60 hours to complete.
The two games on Final Fantasy Anthology are not exact replicas of their 16-bit counterparts, but they are very close. The game graphics are mostly unchanged, in 16-bit fashion like the originals. The sound, however, has been re-mastered to use the capabilities of the PlayStation console and is of a much higher quality than that of the Super NES versions.
The new versions of these games feature lengthy movie sequences at the beginning of each adventure, which gives fans a chance to see more realistically rendered versions of the characters in the game. Also, the version of Final Fantasy VI contained in this anthology has a "bonus" section, where players can watch replays of the movie clips, see original game artwork, and review listings of all the monsters encountered in the game.
Another notable difference between the old and new versions of the games is speed. Since Final Fantasy Anthology runs off compact discs instead of cartridges, the new versions actually run a bit slower due to longer load times. Overall, Final Fantasy Anthology offers enough new material for fans of Final Fantasy games, but it is close enough to the originals to add a nostalgic feeling for the days of 16-bit role-playing games. ~ David Borowski, All Game Guide


text:
Having problems accessing resources?
Report a problem
Report a problem
World Almanac
World Almanac is the cover name for a suite of resources included with OCLC First Search: Funk & Wagnall's New Encyclopedia; The World Almanac and Book of Facts; The World Almanac of the U.S.A.; The World Almanac of U.S. Politics; and The World Almanac for Kids.
URL: https://libproxy.usc.edu/login?url=http://newfirstsearch.oclc.org/done=http://www.usc.edu/isd/elecresources;FSIP;dbname=WorldAlmanac;logo=http://www.usc.edu/art/L-1-BW.gif
View databases in related topics:


text:
The empty field at the corner of Falcon Avenue and Highway 95 will soon be the sight of a beautiful new Fairview Clinic in North Branch. It was announced last week that partners Fairview Clinics and United Properties have received permits to build a new 18,000 square-foot clinic at that location. Co...Read More
Anyone with an active interest in plants and gardening and who is willing to volunteer to share what they know and learn in a University of Minnesota Extension Master Gardener Core Course is encouraged to apply to become a Master Gardener in their county. The Master Gardener Core Course is being off...Read More
Anderson Chiropractic Clinic in North Branch has once again donated a portion of the proceeds from student sports physicals to North Branch schools. To mark the occasion, above, Dr. Daniel Anderson hands a check in the amount of $620 to new athletic director Brett Carlson on July 31. The clinic, 387...Read More
I have written many articles while I have been a Chisago County Master Gardener. Two of the topics of most interest are weeds and insects. The problem with both of these is that they are difficult to identify without a picture or seeing them in person. Another problem is that there are so many new...Read More
As publicity about various invasive species, both aquatic and terrestrial, grows, it is important to understand exactly what an invasive species is. There is a plethora of words used in the media to describe problematic plants and animals, including invasive, exotic, non-native, noxious, alien, an...Read More
A free Nitrate Testing Clinic is scheduled for Saturday, Aug. 18, 9 a.m. to noon in North Branch. Private well owners are encouraged to bring water samples for testing to the Chisago County Household Hazardous Waste Facility, located in the North Brach Industrial Park at 39649 Grand Avenue. Accord...Read More
The Better Business Bureau of Minnesota and North Dakota (BBB) is issuing an urgent warning to businesses and consumers about a scam claiming that President Obama will pay their utility bills through a new federal program. This bogus offer has been popping up nationwide and is now making its way i...Read More


text:
I didn't realize Barnhart attended the same high school as OSU star walk on/blogger/newst Harlem Globetrotter Mark Titus, as well as Butler star basketball player Gordon Heyward
I didn't realize Barnhart attended the same high school as OSU star walk on/blogger/newst Harlem Globetrotter Mark Titus, as well as Butler star basketball player Gordon Heyward
Domo Arigato, Here Comes Joey Votto
"I do what I want to do and say what I want to say."
--Bronson Arroyo
Hamilton and Barnhart are players... Looks like Duran is in over his head at Billings can't hit (but he might fall into one every once in a while and hit it a mile) and for sure no "D". Sorry Duran fans call it like i see it!!!
If you can't be a good example... then you'll just have to be a horrible warning...
Nothing tastes as good as being fit feels...
Sorry nemesis call it like i see it......seen enought to know... 2 mill. bonus came do that for people
I can't believe how much information and knowledge comes from these small minor leagues through REDSZONE. I'm truly in awe at the number of contributers to this site about this subject (kudos to the admins for doing such a nice job of holding this together over the years through the flux and the bad times, especially).
So how high of a ceiling do Yorman, Hamilton and Barnhart have????
I know Yorman opened a lot of eyes with his strong performance last year at Billings for a 16 year old. Hamiliton I know has a ton of tools with his position still to be determined either at 2nd, SS, CF. But Barnhart I don't know anything about?
If Yorman pounds the ball again this year will he get a full year at Dayton next year?
Board Moderators may, at their discretion and judgment, delete and/or edit any messages that violate any of the following guidelines: 1. Explicit references to alleged illegal or unlawful acts. 2. Graphic sexual descriptions. 3. Racial or ethnic slurs. 4. Use of edgy language (including masked profanity). 5. Direct personal attacks, flames, fights, trolling, baiting, name-calling, general nuisance, excessive player criticism or anything along those lines. 6. Posting spam. 7. Each person may have only one user account. It is fine to be critical here - that's what this board is for. But let's not beat a subject or a player to death, please.


text:
The match took place at Scotstoun Sports Campus yesterday, after the world number 20 star learned that Ross Davidson and his sister Becca had raised £10,000 for the Beatson Cancer Charity.
Gilmour, of Bothwell, South Lanarkshire, is one of Scotland's best chances of a medal at this summer's games and also a keen supporter of the Beatson.
Ross, of Clydebank, yesterday hit the courts with Gilmour, who is seeded third in her sport at this summer's games in Glasgow.
Ross was asked if he wanted to play against the 20-year-old athlete after Becca raised £10,000 by shaving off her hair for the Beatson. Becca had wanted to give a donation to the charity which helped her father when he was a patient in the Glasgow unit.
When Gilmour, who holds 16 Scottish titles and a host of international tournament wins, learned of Ross's love of her sport, she offered him a match to say thank you.
Ross admitted before the match that he had a "fair idea of who might be the eventual winner," but was more than satisifed with an honorable draw.
Gilmour is an ambassador for NVT Group, a hardware and software solutions firm, which supports several Commonwealth Games athletes north and south of the Border.
Picture: Colin Templeton


text:
INSTRUCTION & TUTORING: 15-year college and 7-year homeschool teacher. Middle School and all levels HS. Course descriptions and resume sent on request. Davidson classroom. Brenda Gordon, PhDMore info Email a friend
LAWN/GARDEN/LANDSCAPING/TREES: Let our crews spruce up your lawn! We offer Total Lawn & Tree Care, Mulch/Pine Needles, Pruning, Planting, Fertilizing, Mowing, Tree Topping & Removal, Gutter Clean-Outs, Pressure Washing, small Dump Trucks, Hauling, Construction Clean-Up, etc. Free Estimates...More info Email a friend
CHILD EDUCATION/RECREATION: K-12 Summer Tutoring Special $25 per hour with $15 registration fee for a limited time. Travel restrictions apply. Call Alicia @(704) 412-9133 or go online to www.thompsoneducation.info for more information. Register today!More info Email a friend
CHILD EDUCATION/RECREATION: "Virtuoso" School of Music and Art Provides lessons: Piano,Voice,Guitar,Violin,Theory and Ear Training & Art classes We are accepting students of age 3 and older School for kids and adult Address:3705 Latrobe Drive Calcutta Office Park. Suite 310 Charlotte...More info Email a friend
LAWN/GARDEN/LANDSCAPING/TREES: A+BARK MULCH:SHRUB BED & LOTS Mulch FERTILIZES shrubs, plants & Holds MOISTURE in Summer Drought A PROVEN "SNAKE" DETERENT Shrub bed & lot work , clean weeds & ivy Cut thick undergrowth/small trees/brush 30 Yrs. Exp. Ins. Free est. 704-905-7532More info Email a friend
LAWN/GARDEN/LANDSCAPING/TREES: HAIL OR STORM DAMAGE? Smaller Business - Lower PricesCall a Local, Insured, Licensed General Contractor 704-572-3921 www.RightNowContractors.comMore info Email a friend
PHOTOGRAPHY: Wedding photography services available starting at $1,000 at LUCIDYS.COM! (Contact me for event / portrait prices.)Here is what Lucidys.com offers: - Courteous & Friendly Service - High Quality Photographs - An optional ability to have up to three photographers...More info Email a friend
HEALTH & FITNESS: ARE YOU STRESSED? If you are looking for a way to relieve stress, go to: antidoteforall.comMore info Email a friend
CHILD/ELDER CARE SERVICES: HAVE PCA EXPERIENCE? Part-time opportunity available. Please Call 704-576-8840 & leave a message.More info Email a friend
HOME & BUSINESS IMPROVEMENT: We are your local residential electrician. We are well trained and experienced in all phases of residential and commercial construction. Specializing in upfits, we have spent years wiring addditons, upgrading services, and adding lighting and power as needed...More info Email a friend


text:
I admire Olivier Humbrecht's unceasing quest for quality immensely and he has succeeded in making many luscious, intense and attention-grabbing wines but, and it's a big but, many of the wines of which he must be most proud, the most successful late harvest wines for example, are difficult to drink…
Written by 28 Sep 2004
Zind Humbrecht's 2002s
Further reading
You must be logged in as a member to suggest an article.
Annual membershipPerfect for wine lovers £69 annual Join Save £15
Monthly membershipPerfect for wine lovers £6.99 monthly Join
Still unsure?Find out more about membership and the Jancis Robinson Team. Find out more
This article is for members only


text:
International Journal of Cardiology, 04/27/2012
Prehospital use of high dose tirofiban is safe and associated with a low risk of bleeding. Age, Killip class >1, IABP use, but not high dose tirofiban are independent determinants of bleeding in STEMI patients. Bleeding is independently associated with 30–day and 1–year mortality.
© 2015 M3 USA Corporation. ALL Rights Reserved.


text:
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Soviet Union Soviet Union Союз Советских Социалистических Республик Soyuz Sovetskikh Sotsialisticheskikh Respublik Union of Soviet Socialist Republics Other names - Established - Disestablished Area - 1991 Population - 1991 est. Density Currency Internet TLD December 30, 1922 December 26, 19911 22,402,200 km² (8,649,538 sq mi) 293,047,571 13.1 /km² (33.9 /sq mi) Ruble (SUR) .su +7 Succeeded by Russia Belarus Ukraine Moldova Georgia Armenia Azerbaijan Kazakhstan Uzbekistan Turkmenistan Kyrgyzstan Tajikistan Estonia2 Lithuania2 ↓ 1922–1991 ↓ Flag Coat of arms Calling code Preceded by Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic Transcaucasian Socialist Federative Soviet Republic Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic Byelorussian Soviet Socialist Republic Estonia2 Latvia2 Lithuania2 Motto Пролетарии всех стран, соединяйтесь! (Translit.: Proletarii vsekh stran, soyedinyaytes'!) English translation: Workers of the world, unite! Anthem The Internationale (1922–1944) Hymn of the Soviet Union (1944-1991) Capital Language(s) Moscow Russian, Ukrainian, Belarusian, Estonian, Latvian, Lithuanian, Moldovan, Georgian, Armenian, Azerbaijani, Kazakh, Uzbek, Turkmen, Kyrgyz, Tajik Federal socialist republic, Single-party communist state Joseph Stalin Mikhail Gorbachev Vladimir Lenin Ivan Silayev 1On Latvia2 December 21, 1991, eleven of the former socialist republics declared in Alma-Ata (with the twelfth republic Georgia - attending as an observer) that with the formation of the Commonwealth of Independent States the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics ceases to exist. 2The governments of Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania view themselves as continuous and unrelated to the respective Soviet republics. Russia views the Estonian, Latvian, and Lithuanian SSRs as legal constituent republics of the USSR and predecessors of the modern Baltic states. The Government of the United States and a number of other countries did not recognize the legal inclusion of Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania in the USSR. Government General Secretary - 1922–1953 (first) - 1985–1991 (last) Premier - 1923–1924 (first) - 1991 (last) History The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR) was a constitutionally socialist state 1 From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia that existed in Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. The name is a translation of the Russian: Союз Советских Социалистических Республик , tr. Soyuz Sovetskikh Sotsialisticheskikh Respublik, abbreviated СССР, SSSR. The common short name is Soviet Union,[1] from Советский Союз, Sovetskiy Soyuz. A soviet is a council, the theoretical basis for the socialist society of the USSR. Emerging from the Russian Empire following the Russian Revolution of 1917 and the Russian Civil War of 1918–1921, the USSR was a union of several Soviet republics, but the synecdoche Russia — after the Russian SFSR, its largest and most populous constituent state — continued to be commonly used throughout the country's existence. The geographic boundaries of the USSR varied with time, but after the last major territorial annexations of the Baltic states, eastern Poland, Bessarabia, and certain other territories during World War II, from 1945 until dissolution, the boundaries approximately corresponded to those of late Imperial Russia, with the notable exclusions of Poland and most of Finland. As the largest and oldest constitutionally communist state in existence, the Soviet Union became the primary model for future communist nations during the Cold War; the government and the political organization of the country were defined by the only political party, the Communist Party of the Soviet Union. From 1945 until dissolution in 1991—a period known as the Cold War — the Soviet Union and the United States of America were the two world superpowers that dominated the global agenda of economic policy, foreign affairs, military operations, cultural exchange, scientific advancements including the pioneering of space exploration, and sports (including the Olympic Games and various world championships). Initially established as a union of four Soviet Socialist Republics, the USSR grew to contain 15 constituent or "union republics" by 1956: Armenian SSR, Azerbaijan SSR, Byelorussian SSR, Estonian SSR, Georgian SSR, Kazakh SSR, Kirghiz SSR, Latvian SSR, Lithuanian SSR, Moldavian SSR, Russian SFSR, Tajik SSR, Turkmen SSR, Ukrainian SSR and Uzbek SSR. (From annexation of the Estonian SSR on August 6, 1940 up to the reorganization of the Karelo-Finnish SSR into the Karelian ASSR on July 16, 1956, the count of "union republics" was 16.) Soviet Union History The Soviet Union is traditionally considered to be the successor of the Russian Empire and of its short-lived successor, The Provisional Government under Georgy Yevgenyevich Lvov and then Alexander Kerensky. The last Russian Tsar, Nicholas II, ruled until March, 1917 when the Empire was overthrown and a short-lived Russian provisional government took power, the latter to be overthrown in November 1917 by Vladimir Lenin. From 1917 to 1922, the predecessor to the Soviet Union was the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic (RSFSR), which was an independent country, as were other Soviet republics at the time. The Soviet Union was officially established in December 1922 as the union of the Russian (colloquially known as Bolshevist Russia), Ukrainian, Belarusian, and Transcaucasian Soviet republics ruled by Bolshevik parties. Revolution and the foundation of a Soviet state Modern revolutionary activity in the Russian Empire began with the Decembrist Revolt of 1825, and although serfdom was abolished in 1861, its abolition was achieved on terms unfavorable to the peasants and served to encourage revolutionaries. A parliament — the State Duma — was established in 1906 after the Russian Revolution of 1905, but the Tsar resisted attempts to move from absolute to constitutional monarchy. Social unrest continued and was aggravated during World War I by military defeat and food shortages in major cities. Vladimir Lenin addressing a crowd in 1920. A spontaneous popular uprising in Petrograd, in response to the wartime decay of Russia's economy and morale, culminated in 2 From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia the toppling of the imperial government in March 1917 (see February Revolution). The tsarist autocracy was replaced by the Provisional Government, whose leaders intended to conduct elections to Russian Constituent Assembly and to continue participating on the side of the Entente in World War I. At the same time, to ensure the rights of the working class, workers' councils, known as soviets, sprang up across the country. The Bolsheviks, led by Vladimir Lenin, pushed for socialist revolution in the soviets and on the streets. They seized power from the Provisional Government in November 1917 (see October Revolution). Only after the long and bloody Russian Civil War of 1918–1921, which included foreign intervention in several parts of Russia, was the new Soviet power secure. In a related conflict with Poland, the Peace of Riga in early 1921 split disputed territories in Belarus and Ukraine between Poland and Soviet Russia. Soviet Union electric-powered large industrial enterprises.[6] The Plan became the prototype for subsequent Five-Year Plans and was basically fulfilled by 1931.[7] Stalin's rule Unification of the Soviet Republics On December 28, 1922 a conference of plenipotentiary delegations from the RSFSR, the Transcaucasian SFSR, the Ukrainian SSR and the Byelorussian SSR approved the Treaty of Creation of the USSR[2] and the Declaration of the Creation of the USSR, forming the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics.[3] These two documents were confirmed by the 1st Congress of Soviets of the USSR and signed by heads of delegations[4] - Mikhail Kalinin, Mikha Tskhakaya, Mikhail Frunze and Grigory Petrovsky, Aleksandr Chervyakov[5] respectively on December 30, 1922. On February 1, 1924, the USSR was recognized by the British Empire. The intensive restructuring of the economy, industry and politics of the country began in the early days of Soviet power in 1917. A large part of this was performed according to Bolshevik Initial Decrees, documents of the Soviet government, signed by Vladimir Lenin. One of the most prominent breakthroughs was the GOELRO plan, that envisioned a major restructuring of the Soviet economy based on total electrification of the country. The Plan was developed in 1920 and covered a ten to 15 year period. It included construction of a network of 30 regional power plants, including ten large hydroelectric power plants, and numerous The Cathedral of Christ the Saviour in Moscow during its 1931 demolition. Organized religion was suppressed in the Soviet Union. From its beginning years, government in the Soviet Union was based on the one-party rule of the Communist Party (Bolsheviks).[8] After the economic policy of War Communism during the Civil War, the Soviet government permitted some private enterprise to coexist with nationalized industry in the 1920s and total food requisition in the countryside was replaced by a food tax (see New Economic Policy). Soviet leaders argued that one party rule was necessary because it ensured that 'capitalist exploitation' would not return to the Soviet Union and that the principles of Democratic Centralism would represent the people's will. Debate over the future of the economy provided the background for Soviet leaders to contend for power in the years after Lenin's death in 1924. By gradually consolidating his influence and isolating his rivals within the party, Georgian Joseph Stalin became the leader of the Soviet Union by the end of the 1920s. In 1928, Stalin introduced the First FiveYear Plan for building a socialist economy. While encompassing the internationalism expressed by Lenin throughout the course of the Revolution, it also aimed for building socialism in one country. In industry, the state 3 From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia assumed control over all existing enterprises and undertook an intensive program of industrialization; in agriculture collective farms were established all over the country. It met widespread resistance from kulaks and some prosperous peasants, who withheld grain, resulting in a bitter struggle between the kulaks against the authorities and poor peasants. Famines occurred causing millions of deaths and surviving kulaks were politically persecuted and many sent to Gulags to do forced labour. A wide range of death tolls has been suggested, from as many as 60 million kulaks being killed suggested by Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn to as few as 700 thousand - by Soviet news sources - with a rough consensus forming around the figure of 20 million.[9] Social upheaval continued in the mid-1930s. Stalin's Great Purge of the party killed many "Old Bolsheviks" who had participated in the October Revolution with Lenin. Yet despite the turmoil of the mid- to late 1930s, the Soviet Union developed a powerful industrial economy in the years before World War II. Soviet Union economically and militarily, by concluding the German-Soviet Nonaggression Pact, which made possible the occupation of Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia and the invasion of Poland in 1939. In late November 1939, unable to force Finland into agreement to move its border 25 kilometres back from Leningrad by diplomatic means, Stalin ordered the invasion of Finland. Although it has been debated whether the Soviet Union had the intention of invading Germany once it was strong enough,[10] Germany itself broke the treaty and invaded the Soviet Union in 1941. The Red Army stopped the German offensive in the Battle of Moscow, and the Battle of Stalingrad, lasting from late 1942 to early 1943, became a major turning point of the war, after which Soviet forces drove through Eastern Europe to Berlin before Germany surrendered in 1945 (see Great Patriotic War). Although ravaged by the war, the Soviet Union emerged victorious from the conflict and became an acknowledged superpower. During the immediate postwar period, the Soviet Union first rebuilt and then expanded its economy, while maintaining its strictly centralized control. The Soviet Union aided post-war reconstruction in the countries of Eastern Europe while turning them into Soviet satellite states, founded the Warsaw Pact in 1955, later, the Comecon, supplied aid to the eventually victorious Communists in the People's Republic of China, and saw its influence grow elsewhere in the world. Meanwhile, the rising tension of the Cold War turned the Soviet Union's wartime allies, the United Kingdom and the United States, into enemies. Soviet soldiers fighting in the ruins of Stalingrad, 1942, the bloodiest battle in human history and a major turning point in World War II. The Soviet Union lost around 27 million people during the war, almost half of all World War II casualties. The 1930s saw closer cooperation between the West and the USSR. In 1933, diplomatic relations between the United States and the USSR were established. Four years later, the USSR actively supported the Republican forces in the Spanish Civil War against the Nationalists, who were supported by Fascist Italy and Nazi Germany. Nevertheless, after Great Britain and France concluded the Munich Agreement with Germany, the USSR dealt with the latter as well, both Post-Stalin Stalin died on March 5, 1953. In the absence of an acceptable successor, the highest Communist Party officials opted to rule the Soviet Union jointly, although a struggle for power took place behind the facade of collective leadership. Nikita Khrushchev, who had won the power struggle by the mid-1950s, denounced Stalin's use of repression in 1956 and eased repressive controls over party and society. This was known as de-Stalinization. At the same time, Soviet military force was used to suppress nationalistic uprisings in Hungary and Poland in 1956. During this period, the Soviet Union continued to realize 4 From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Soviet Union Soviet Union and the United States with the Sept. 1,1983 downing by the Soviets of Korean Air Lines Flight 007 with 269 passengers and crew, including a sitting U.S. congressman, Representative Larry McDonald of Georgia. Throughout the period, the Soviet Union maintained parity with or superiority to the United States in the areas of military numbers and technology, but this strained the economy. In contrast to the revolutionary spirit that accompanied the birth of the Soviet Union, the prevailing mood of the Soviet leadership at the time of Brezhnev's death in 1982 was one of aversion to change. The long period of Brezhnev's rule had come to be dubbed one of "standstill" (застой), with an aging and ossified top political leadership. After some experimentation with economic reforms in the mid-1960s, the Soviet leadership reverted to established means of economic management. Industry showed slow but steady gains during the 1970s. Agricultural development continued, but could not keep up with the growing consumption and the USSR had to import food products like grain. Due to the low investment in consumer goods, the USSR was largely only able to export raw materials, notably oil, which made it vulnerable to global price shifts. Moreover, human welfare in the Soviet Union was keeping behind Western and socialist CentralEuropean levels, after initially converging in the 1950s and 60's. Even in absolute measurements, Soviet citizens were becoming less healthy between the 1960s and 1985: the crude death rate climbed from 6.9 per 1,000 in 1964 to 10.3 in 1980.[11] First human in space, Yuri Gagarin scientific and technological pioneering exploits; to launch the first artificial satellite, Sputnik 1; a living dog, Laika; and later, the first human being, Yuri Gagarin, into Earth's orbit. Valentina Tereshkova was the first woman in space aboard Vostok 6 on June 16, 1963, and Alexey Leonov became the first person to walk in space on March 18, 1965. Khrushchev's reforms in agriculture and administration, however, were generally unproductive, and foreign policy towards China and the United States suffered difficulties, including those that led to the Sino-Soviet split. Khrushchev was retired from power in 1964. Following the ousting of Khrushchev, another period of rule by collective leadership ensued, lasting until Leonid Brezhnev established himself in the early 1970s as the preeminent figure in Soviet political life. Brezhnev presided over a period of Détente with the West while at the same time building up Soviet military strength; the arms buildup contributed to the demise of Détente in the late 1970s. Another contributing factor was the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan in December 1979. The first term of President Ronald Reagan saw increased tension between the Reforms of Gorbachev and collapse of the Soviet Union Two developments dominated the decade that followed: the increasingly apparent crumbling of the Soviet Union's economic and political structures, and the patchwork attempts at reforms to reverse that process. Kenneth S. Deffeyes argued in "Beyond Oil" that the Reagan Administration encouraged Saudi Arabia to lower the price of oil to the point where the Soviets could not make a profit from selling their oil, so that the USSR's hard currency reserves became depleted.[12] After the rapid succession of Yuri Andropov and Konstantin Chernenko, 5 From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia transitional figures with deep roots in Brezhnevite tradition, beginning in 1985 Mikhail Gorbachev made significant changes in the economy (see Perestroika, Glasnost) and the party leadership. His policy of glasnost freed public access to information after decades of heavy government censorship. With the Soviet Union in bad economic shape and its satellite states in eastern Europe abandoning communism, Gorbachev moved to end the Cold War. In 1988, the Soviet Union abandoned its nine-year war with Afghanistan and began to withdraw forces from the country. In the late 1980s, Gorbachev refused to send military support to defend the Soviet Union's former satellite states, resulting in multiple communist regimes in those states being forced from power. With the tearing down of the Berlin Wall with East Germany and West Germany pursuing unification, the Iron curtain took the final blow. In the late 1980s, the constituent republics of the Soviet Union started legal moves towards or even declaration of sovereignty over their territories, citing Article 72 of the USSR Constitution, which stated that any constituent republic was free to secede.[13] On April 7, 1990, a law was passed, that a republic could secede, if more than two-thirds of that republic's residents vote for it on a referendum.[14] Many held their first free elections in the Soviet era for their own national legislatures in 1990. Many of these legislatures proceeded to produce legislation contradicting the Union laws in what was known as "The war of laws." In 1989, the Russian SFSR, which was then the largest constituent republic (with about half of the population) convened a newly elected Congress of People's Deputies. Boris Yeltsin was elected the chairman of the Congress. On June 12, 1990, the Congress declared Russia's sovereignty over its territory and proceeded to pass laws that attempted to supersede some of the USSR's laws. The period of legal uncertainty continued throughout 1991 as constituent republics slowly became de facto independent. A referendum for the preservation of the USSR was held on March 17, 1991, with the majority of the population voting for preservation of the Union in nine out of fifteen republics. The referendum gave Gorbachev a minor boost, and, in the summer of 1991, the New Union Treaty was designed and agreed upon by eight republics which would have Soviet Union turned the Soviet Union into a much looser federation. Yeltsin stands on a tank to defy the August Coup in 1991. The signing of the treaty, however, was interrupted by the August Coup — an attempted coup d'état against Gorbachev by hardline Communist Party members of the government and the KGB, who sought to reverse Gorbachev's reforms and reassert the central government's control over the republics. After the coup collapsed, Yeltsin came out as a hero while Gorbachev's power was effectively ended. The balance of power tipped significantly towards the republics. In August 1991, Latvia and Estonia immediately declared restoration of full independence (following Lithuania's 1990 example), while the other twelve republics continued discussing new, increasingly looser, models of the Union. On December 8, 1991, the presidents of Russia, Ukraine and Belarus signed the Belavezha Accords which declared the Soviet Union dissolved and established the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) in its place. While doubts remained over the authority of the Belavezha Accords to dissolve the Union, on December 21, 1991, the representatives of all Soviet republics except Georgia, including those republics that had signed the Belavezha Accords, signed the Alma-Ata Protocol, which confirmed the dismemberment and consequential extinction of the USSR and restated the establishment of the CIS. The summit of Alma-Ata also agreed on several other practical measures consequential to the extinction of the Union. On December 25, 1991, Gorbachev yielded to the inevitable and resigned as the president of the USSR, declaring the office extinct. He turned the powers that until then were 6 From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia vested in the presidency over to Boris Yeltsin, president of Russia. The following day, the Supreme Soviet, the highest governmental body of the Soviet Union, recognized the bankruptcy and collapse of the Soviet Union and dissolved itself. This is generally recognized as the official, final dissolution of the Soviet Union as a functioning state. Many organizations such as the Soviet Army and police forces continued to remain in place in the early months of 1992 but were slowly phased out and either withdrawn from or absorbed by the newly independent states. Soviet Union overseeing the observance of Soviet law by government bodies. According to the 1977 Soviet Constitution, the government had a federal structure, permitting the republics some authority over policy implementation and offering the national minorities the appearance of participation in the management of their own affairs. Politics White House, 2006 In practice, however, the government differed markedly from Western systems. In the late 1980s, the CPSU performed many functions that governments of other countries usually perform. For example, the party decided on the policy alternatives that the government ultimately implemented. The government merely ratified the party's decisions to lend them an aura of legitimacy. The CPSU used a variety of mechanisms to ensure that the government adhered to its policies. The party, using its nomenklatura authority, placed its loyalists in leadership positions throughout the government, where they were subject to the norms of democratic centralism. Party bodies closely monitored the actions of government ministries, agencies, and legislative organs. The content of the Soviet Constitution differed in many ways from typical Western constitutions. It generally described existing political relationships, as determined by the CPSU, rather than prescribing an ideal set of political relationships. The Constitution was long and detailed, giving technical specifications for individual organs of government. The Constitution included political statements, such as foreign policy goals, and provided a theoretical definition of the state within the ideological framework of MarxismLeninism. The CPSU leadership could radically change the constitution or remake it The Moscow Kremlin, the official residence of the government of the USSR. The government of the Soviet Union administered the country's economy and society. It implemented decisions made by the leading political institution in the country, the Communist Party of the Soviet Union (CPSU). In the late 1980s, the government appeared to have many characteristics in common with liberal democratic political systems. For instance, a constitution established all organizations of government and granted to citizens a series of political and civic rights. A legislative body, the Congress of People's Deputies, and its standing legislature, the Supreme Soviet, represented the principle of popular sovereignty. The Supreme Soviet, which had an elected chairman who functioned as head of state, oversaw the Council of Ministers, which acted as the executive branch of the government. The chairman of the Council of Ministers, whose selection was approved by the Supreme Soviet, functioned as head of government. A constitutionally based judicial branch of government included a court system, headed by the Supreme Court, that was responsible for 7 From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia completely, as it did several times throughout its history. Soviet Union wielded enormous legislative power. In practice, however, the Congress of People's Deputies met infrequently and only to approve decisions made by the party, the Council of Ministers, and its own Supreme Soviet. The Supreme Soviet, the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet, the chairman of the Supreme Soviet, and the Council of Ministers had substantial authority to enact laws, decrees, resolutions, and orders binding on the population. The Congress of People's Deputies had the authority to ratify these decisions. Judicial system For more details on this topic, see Soviet law. The judiciary was not independent from the other branches of government. The Supreme Court supervised the lower courts and applied the law as established by the Constitution or as interpreted by the Supreme Soviet. The Constitutional Oversight Committee reviewed the constitutionality of laws and acts. The Soviet Union lacked an adversarial court procedure known to many common law jurisdictions, but rather utilized the Roman Law inquisitorial system, where judge, procurator, and defense attorney work collaboratively to establish the truth. However, globally the inquisitorial system is more widespread than the adversarial system and indeed some countries such as Italy utilize a combination of both systems.[15][16] A 1932 Soviet poster for International Women's Day The Council of Ministers acted as the executive body of the government. Its most important duties lay in the administration of the economy. The council was thoroughly under the control of the CPSU, and its chairman — the Soviet prime minister — was always a member of the Politburo. The council, which in 1989 included more than 100 members, was too large and unwieldy to act as a unified executive body. The council's Presidium, made up of the leading economic administrators and led by the chairman, exercised dominant power within the Council of Ministers. According to the Constitution, as amended in 1988, the highest legislative body in the Soviet Union was the Congress of People's Deputies, which convened for the first time in May 1989. The main tasks of the congress were the election of the standing legislature, the Supreme Soviet, and the election of the chairman of the Supreme Soviet, who acted as head of state. Theoretically, the Congress of People's Deputies and the Supreme Soviet The Soviet state The Soviet Union was a federal state made up of fifteen republics (sixteen between 1946 and 1956) joined together in a theoretically voluntary union; it was this theoretical situation that formed the basis of the Byelorussian and Ukrainian SSRs' membership in the United Nations. In turn, a series of territorial units made up the republics. The republics also contained jurisdictions intended to protect the interests of national minorities. The republics had their own constitutions, which, along with the all-union Constitution, provide the theoretical division of power in the Soviet Union. All the republics except Russian SFSR had their own communist parties. In 1989, however, the CPSU and the central government retained all significant authority, setting policies that were executed by republic, provincial, oblast, and district governments. In the Supreme Soviet of the USSR, there were two chambers that represented the 8 From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia population (in later constitutions). One was the Soviet of the Union, which represented people indiscriminately, and the Soviet of Nationalities, which represented the various ethnicities in the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. Soviet Union Leaders The de facto leader of the Soviet Union was the First Secretary or General Secretary of the CPSU. The head of government was considered the Premier, and the head of state was considered the chairman of the Presidium. The Soviet leader could also have one (or both) of these positions, along with the position of General Secretary of the party. The last leader of the Soviet Union was Mikhail Gorbachev, serving from 1985 until late December 1991. List of Soviet Premiers (Chairman of the Council of People's Commissars of the USSR (1923–1946); Chairman of the Council of Ministers of the USSR (1946–1990); Prime Minister of the USSR (1991)) List of Soviet Heads of state (Chairman of the Central Executive Committee of the All-Russian Congress of Soviets (1917–1922); Chairman of the Central Executive Committee of the USSR (1922–1938); Chairman of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR (1938–1989); Chairman of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR (1989–1990); President of the Soviet Union (1990–1991)) Map of Comecon (1986) which includes the Soviet Union and its allies. members members who did not participate associates observers Left to right: Soviet General Secretary Joseph Stalin, U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt and British Prime Minister Winston Churchill. The Soviet Union emerged from World War II as one of the world's two superpowers, a position maintained for four decades through its hegemony in Eastern Europe (see Eastern Bloc), military strength, economic strength, aid to developing countries, and scientific research, especially into space technology and weaponry. The Soviet Union's growing influence abroad in the postwar years helped lead to a Communist system of states in Eastern Europe united by military and economic agreements. It overtook the British Empire as a global superpower, both in a military sense and its ability to expand its influence beyond its borders. The Council for Mutual Economic Assistance (Comecon), 1949–1991, was an economic organization of communist states and a kind of Eastern Bloc equivalent to — but more geographically inclusive than — the European Foreign relations Once denied diplomatic recognition by the capitalist world, the Soviet Union had official relations with practically all nations of the world by the late 1940s. The Soviet Union also had progressed from being an outsider in international organizations and negotiations to being one of the arbiters of the world's fate after World War II. A member of the United Nations at its foundation in 1945, the Soviet Union became one of the five permanent members of the UN Security Council which gave it the right to veto any of its resolutions (see Soviet Union and the United Nations). 9 From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Economic Community. The military counterpart to the Comecon was the Warsaw Pact, though Comecon's membership was significantly wider.[17] The descriptive term Comecon was often applied to all multilateral activities involving members of the organization, rather than being restricted to the direct functions of Comecon and its organs.[18] This usage was sometimes extended as well to bilateral relations among members, because in the system of socialist international economic relations, multilateral accords — typically of a general nature — tended to be implemented through a set of more detailed, bilateral agreements.[17] Moscow considered Eastern Europe to be a buffer zone for the forward defense of its western borders and ensured its control of the region by transforming the East European countries into satellite states. Soviet troops intervened in the 1956 Hungarian Revolution and cited the Brezhnev Doctrine, the Soviet counterpart to the U.S. Johnson Doctrine and later Nixon Doctrine, and helped oust the Czechoslovak government in 1968, sometimes referred to as the Prague Spring. In the late 1950s, a confrontation with China regarding the USSR's rapprochement with the West and what Mao perceived as Khrushchev's revisionism led to the SinoSoviet split. This resulted in a break throughout the global Communist movement and Communist regimes in Albania and Cambodia choosing to ally with China in place of the USSR. For a time, war between the former allies appeared to be a possibility; while relations would cool during the 1970s, they would not return to normality until the Gorbachev era. During the same period, a tense confrontation between the Soviet Union and the United States over the Soviet deployment of nuclear missiles in Cuba sparked the Cuban Missile Crisis in 1962. The KGB (Committee for State Security) served in a fashion as the Soviet counterpart to both the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the Central Intelligence Agency in the U.S. It ran a massive network of informants throughout the Soviet Union, which was used to monitor violations in law. The foreign wing of the KGB was used to gather intelligence in countries around the globe. After the collapse of the Soviet Union, it was replaced in Soviet Union Russia by the SVR (Foreign Intelligence Service) and the FSB (Federal Security Service of the Russian Federation). Leonid Brezhnev and Jimmy Carter sign SALT II treaty, June 18, 1979, in Vienna. The KGB was not without substantial oversight. The GRU (Main Intelligence Directorate), not publicized by the Soviet Union until the end of the Soviet era during perestroika, was created by Lenin in 1918 and served both as a centralized handler of military intelligence and as an institutional check-and-balance for the otherwise relatively unrestricted power of the KGB. Effectively, it served to spy on the spies, and, not surprisingly, the KGB served a similar function with the GRU. As with the KGB, the GRU operated in nations around the world, particularly in Soviet bloc and satellite states. The GRU continues to operate in Russia today, with resources estimated by some to exceed those of the SVR.[17][18] In the 1970s, the Soviet Union achieved rough nuclear parity with the United States, and eventually overtook it. It perceived its own involvement as essential to the solution of any major international problem. Meanwhile, the Cold War gave way to Détente and a more complicated pattern of international relations in which the world was no longer clearly split into two clearly opposed blocs. Less powerful countries had more room to assert their independence, and the two superpowers were partially able to recognize their common interest in trying to check the further spread and proliferation of nuclear weapons (see SALT I, SALT II, Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty). By this time, the Soviet Union had concluded friendship and cooperation treaties with a number of states in the non-Communist world, especially among Third World and 10 From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Non-Aligned Movement states like India and Egypt. Notwithstanding some ideological obstacles, Moscow advanced state interests by gaining military footholds in strategically important areas throughout the Third World. Furthermore, the Soviet Union continued to provide military aid for revolutionary movements in the Third World. For all these reasons, Soviet foreign policy was of major importance to the non-Communist world and helped determine the tenor of international relations. Soviet Union Soviet troops withdrawing from Afghanistan in 1988 republics were treated differently from the satellite states, and troops were used to suppress cessation movements within the Union (see Black January) but ultimately to no avail. Following the dissolution of the Soviet Union on December 25, 1991, Russia was internationally recognised[19] to be the legal successor to the Soviet state on the international stage. To that end, Russia voluntarily accepted all Soviet foreign debt, and claimed overseas Soviet properties as its own. To prevent subsequent disputes over Soviet property, "zero variant" agreements were proposed to ratify with newly independent states the status quo on the date of dissolution. (Ukraine is the last former Soviet republic not to have entered into such an agreement.) The end of the Soviet Union also raised questions about treaties it had signed, such as the Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty; Russia has held the position that those treaties remain in force, and should be read as though Russia were the signatory.[20] For more details on this topic, see Military history of the Soviet Union. Gorbachev in one-on-one discussions with U.S. President Ronald Reagan. Although myriad bureaucracies were involved in the formation and execution of Soviet foreign policy, the major policy guidelines were determined by the Politburo of the Communist Party. The foremost objectives of Soviet foreign policy had been the maintenance and enhancement of national security and the maintenance of hegemony over Eastern Europe. Relations with the United States and Western Europe were also of major concern to Soviet foreign policy makers, and relations with individual Third World states were at least partly determined by the proximity of each state to the Soviet border and to Soviet estimates of its strategic significance. After Mikhail Gorbachev succeeded Konstantin Chernenko as General Secretary of the CPSU in 1985, he introduced many changes in Soviet foreign policy and in the economy of the USSR. Gorbachev pursued conciliatory policies towards the West instead of maintaining the Cold War status quo. The Soviet Union ended its occupation of Afghanistan, signed strategic arms reduction treaties with the United States, and allowed its allies in Eastern Europe to determine their own affairs. However, soviet Republics See also: Oblasts of the Soviet Union The Soviet Union was a federation that consisted of Soviet Socialist Republics (SSR). The first Republics were established shortly after the October Revolution of 1917. At that time, republics were technically independent from one another but their governments acted in closely coordinated confederation, as directed by the CPSU leadership. In 1922, four Republics (Russian SFSR, Ukrainian SSR, Belarusian SSR, and Transcaucasian SFSR) joined into the Soviet Union. Between 11 From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia The Republics of the Soviet Union (1956 — 1989) Flag Republic 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 Armenian SSR Azerbaijan SSR Capital Yerevan Baku Map of the Soviet Union Soviet Union Byelorussian SSR Minsk Estonian SSR Georgian SSR Kazakh SSR Kirghiz SSR Latvian SSR Lithuanian SSR Moldavian SSR Russian SFSR Tajik SSR Turkmen SSR Ukrainian SSR Uzbek SSR Tallin Tbilisi Alma-Ata Frunze Riga Vilnius Kishinev Moscow Dushanbe Ashkhabad Kiev Tashkent 3. be named after the dominant ethnic group which should consist of at least one million people. The system remained almost unchanged after 1940. No new Republics were established. One republic, Karelo-Finnish SSR, was disbanded in 1956, and the territory formally became the Karelian Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic (ASSR) within the Russian SFSR. The remaining 15 republics lasted until 1991. Even though Soviet Constitutions established the right for a republic to secede, it remained theoretical and very unlikely, given Soviet centralism, until the 1991 collapse of the Union. At that time, the republics became independent countries, with some still loosely organized under the heading Commonwealth of Independent States. Some republics had common history and geographical regions, and were referred by group names. These were Baltic Republics, Transcaucasian Republics, and Central Asian Republics. Soviet Union administrative divisions, 1989 1922 and 1940, the number of Republics grew to sixteen. Some of the new Republics were formed from territories acquired, or reacquired by the Soviet Union, others by splitting existing Republics into several parts. The criteria for establishing new republics were as follows: 1. to be located on the periphery of the Soviet Union so as to be able to exercise their right to secession; 2. be economically strong enough to survive on their own upon secession; and Economy Prior to its dissolution, the USSR had the second largest economy in the world, after the United States.[21] The economy of the Soviet Union was the modern world's first 12 From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Comparison between USSR and US economies (1989) according to 1990 CIA World Factbook[21] USSR GDP (1989 - millions $) Population (July 1990) GDP Per Capita ($) Labour force (1989) 2,659,500 290,938,469 9,211 152,300,000 US 5,233,300 Soviet Union 250,410,000 21,082 125,557,000 USSR and FSU GDP The DneproGES, one of many hydroelectric power stations in the Soviet Union centrally planned economy. It was based on a system of state ownership and managed through Gosplan (the State Planning Commission), Gosbank (the State Bank) and the Gossnab (State Commission for Materials and Equipment Supply). The first major project of economic planning was the GOELRO plan, which was followed by a series of other FiveYear Plans. The emphasis was put on a very fast development of heavy industry and the nation became one of the world's top manufacturers of a large number of basic and heavy industrial products, but it lagged behind in the output of light industrial production and consumer durables. Agriculture of the Soviet Union was organized into a system of collective farms (kolkhozes) and state farms (sovkhozes) but it was relatively unproductive. Crises in the agricultural sector reaped catastrophic consequences in the 1930s, when collectivization met widespread resistance from the kulaks, resulting in a bitter struggle of many peasants against the authorities, and famine, particularly in Ukraine (see Holodomor), but also in the Volga River area and Kazakhstan. As the Soviet economy grew more complex, it required more and more complex disaggregation of control figures (plan targets) and factory inputs. As it required more communication between the enterprises and the planning ministries, and as the number of enterprises, trusts, and ministries multiplied, the Soviet economy started stagnating. The Soviet economy was increasingly sluggish when it came to responding to change, adapting cost−saving technologies, and providing incentives at all levels to improve growth, productivity and efficiency. Most information in the Soviet economy flowed from the top down and economic planning was often done based on faulty or outdated information, particularly in sectors with large numbers of consumers. As a result, some goods tended to be under-produced, leading to shortages, while other goods were overproduced and accumulated in storage. Some factories developed a system of barter and either exchanged or shared raw materials and parts, while consumers developed a black market for goods that were particularly sought after but constantly under-produced. Conceding the weaknesses of their past approaches in solving new problems, the leaders of the late 1980s, headed by Mikhail Gorbachev, were seeking to mold a program of economic reform to galvanize the economy. However, by 1990 the Soviet government had lost control over economic conditions. Government spending increased sharply as an increasing number of unprofitable enterprises required state support and consumer price subsidies to continue. Since the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991, almost all of the 15 former Soviet republics have dismantled their Soviet-style economies. 13 From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Soviet Union Geography The Soviet Union occupied the eastern portion of the European continent and the northern portion of the Asian continent. Most of the country was north of 50° north latitude and covered a total area of approximately 22,402,200 square kilometres (8,649,500 sq mi). Due to the sheer size of the state, the climate varied greatly from subtropical and continental to subarctic and polar. 11% of the land was arable, 16% was meadows and pasture, 41% was forest and woodland, and 32% was declared "other" (including tundra). The Soviet Union measured some 10,000 kilometres (6,200 mi) from Kaliningrad on the in the west to Ratmanova Island (Big Diomede Island) in the Bering Strait, or roughly equivalent to the distance from Edinburgh, Scotland, west to Nome, Alaska. From the tip of the Taymyr Peninsula on the Arctic Ocean to the Central Asian town of Kushka near the Afghan border extended almost 5,000 kilometres (3,100 mi) of mostly rugged, inhospitable terrain. The east-west expanse of the continental United States would easily fit between the northern and southern borders of the Soviet Union at their extremities. This map shows the 1974 geographic location of various ethnic groups within the Soviet Union Tajiks, and Turkmen as well as Abkhaz, Adyghes, Aleuts, Assyrians, Avars, Bashkirs, Bulgarians, Buryats, Chechens, Chinese, Chuvash, Cossacks, Evenks, Finns, Gagauz, Germans, Greeks, Hungarians, Ingushes, Inuit, Jews, Kalmyks, Karakalpaks, Karelians, Kets, Koreans, Lezgins, Maris, Mongols, Mordvins, Nenetses, Ossetians, Poles, Roma, Romanians, Rusyns, Tats, Tatars, Tuvans, Udmurts, Yakuts, and others. Mainly because of differences in birth rates among the Soviet nationalities, the share of the population that was Russian steadily declined in the postWorld War II period.[22] Population and society Nationalities The extensive multinational empire that the Bolsheviks inherited after their revolution was created by Tsarist expansion over some four centuries. Some nationality groups came into the empire voluntarily, others were brought in by force. Russians[23], Belarusians and Ukrainians shared close cultural ties while, generally, the other subjects of the empire shared little in common — culturally, religiously, or linguistically. More often than not, two or more diverse nationalities were co-located on the same territory. Therefore, national antagonisms built up over the years not only against the Russians but often between some of the subject nations as well. For many years, Soviet leaders maintained that the underlying causes of conflict between nationalities of the Soviet Union had been eliminated and that the Soviet Union consisted of a family of nations living harmoniously together. In the 1920s and early 1930s, the government conducted a policy of USSR and FSU Population The Soviet Union was one of the world's most ethnically diverse countries, with more than 200 distinct ethnic groups within its borders. The total population was estimated at 293 million in 1991, having been the 3rd most populous nation after China and India for decades. In the last years of the Soviet Union, the majority of the population were Russians (50.78%), followed by Ukrainians (15.45%) and Uzbeks (5.84%). Other ethnic groups included Armenians, Azerbaijanis, Belarusians, Estonians, Georgians, Kazakhs, Kyrgyz, Latvians, Lithuanians, Moldovans, 14 From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia korenizatsiya (indigenization) of local governments in an effort to recruit non-Russians into the new Soviet political institutions and to reduce the conflict between Russians and the minority nationalities. One area in which the Soviet leaders made concessions perhaps more out of necessity than out of conviction, was language policy. To increase literacy and mass education, the government encouraged the development and publication in many of the "national languages" of the minority groups. While Russian became a required subject of study in all Soviet schools in 1938, in the mainly non-Russian areas the chief language of instruction was the local language or languages. This practice led to widespread bilingualism in the educated population, though among smaller nationalities and among elements of the population that were heavily affected by the immigration of Russians, linguistic assimilation also was common, in which the members of a given non-Russian nationality lost facility in the historic language of their group.[24] The concessions granted national cultures and the limited autonomy tolerated in the union republics in the 1920s led to the development of national elites and a heightened sense of national identity. Subsequent repression and Russianization fostered resentment against domination by Moscow and promoted further growth of national consciousness. National feelings were also exacerbated in the Soviet multinational state by increased competition for resources, services, and jobs, and by the policy of the leaders in Moscow to move workers — mainly Russians — to the peripheral areas of the country, the homelands of non-Russian nationalities. By the end of the 1980s, encouraged in part by Gorbachev's policy of glasnost, unofficial groups formed around a great many social, cultural, and political issues. In some non-Russian regions ostensible green movements or ecological movements were thinly disguised national movements in support of the protection of natural resources and the national patrimony generally from control by ministries in Moscow. Soviet Union the people in the Soviet Union professed religious belief. Christianity and Islam had the most believers. The state was separated from church by the Decree of Council of People's Comissars on January 23, 1918. Two-thirds of the Soviet population, however, had no religious beliefs. About half the people, including members of the CPSU and high-level government officials, professed atheism. Official figures on the number of religious believers in the Soviet Union were not available in 1989. Christians belonged to various churches: Orthodox, which had the largest number of followers; Catholic; and Baptist and various other Protestant denominations. Government persecution of Christianity continued unabated until the fall of the Communist government, with Stalin's reign the most repressive. Stalin is quoted as saying that "The Party cannot be neutral towards religion. It conducts an anti-religious struggle against any and all religious prejudices." In World War II, however, the repression against the Russian Orthodox Church temporarily ceased as it was perceived as "instrument of patriotic unity" in the war against "the western Teutonics." Repression against Russian Orthodox restarted from ca. 1946 onwards and more forcibly under Nikita Khrushchev. Although there were many ethnic Jews in the Soviet Union, actual practice of Judaism was rare in Communist times. In 1928, Stalin created the Jewish Autonomous Oblast in the far east of what is now Russia to try to create a "Soviet Zion" for a proletarian Jewish culture to develop. The overwhelming majority of Muslims were Sunni. The Azerbaijanis, who were Shiite, were one major exception. The largest groups of Muslims in the Soviet Union resided in the Central Asian republics (Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, and Uzbekistan) and Kazakhstan, though substantial numbers also resided in Central Russia (principally in Bashkiria and Tatarstan), in the North Caucasian part of Russia (Chechnya, Dagestan, and other autonomous republics) and in Transcaucasia (principally in Azerbaijan but also certain regions of Georgia). Other religions, which were practiced by a relatively small number of believers, included Buddhism (mostly Vajrayana) and paganism (which was largely shamanic), a religion based on spiritualism. The role of religion in Religious groups Although the Soviet Union was officially secular, it supported atheist ideology and suppressed religion, though according to various Soviet and Western sources, over one-third of 15 From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia the daily lives of Soviet citizens thus varied greatly, but was far less integral in city dwellers where Party control was optimum. Soviet Union Mayakovsky were active during this time. Film, as a means of influencing a largely illiterate society, received encouragement from the state; much of director Sergei Eisenstein's best work dates from this period. Later, during Joseph Stalin's rule, Soviet culture was characterised by the rise and domination of the government-imposed style of Socialist realism, with all other trends being severely repressed, with rare exceptions (e.g. Mikhail Bulgakov's works). Many writers were imprisoned and killed.[25] Also religious people were persecuted and either sent to Gulags or were murdered in their thousands[26] though the ban on the Orthodox Church was temporarily lifted in the 1940s, in order to rally support for the Soviet war against the invading forces of Germany. Under Stalin, prominent symbols that were not in line with communist ideology were destroyed, such as Orthodox Churches and Tsarist buildings. Following the Khrushchev Thaw of the late 1950s and early 1960s, censorship was diminished. Greater experimentation in art forms became permissible once again, with the result that more sophisticated and subtly critical work began to be produced. The regime loosened its emphasis on socialist realism; thus, for instance, many protagonists of the novels of author Yury Trifonov concerned themselves with problems of daily life rather than with building socialism. An underground dissident literature, known as samizdat, developed during this late period. In architecture Khrushchev era mostly focused on functional design as opposed to highly decorated style of Stalin's epoch. In the second half of 1980s, Gorbachev's policies of perestroika and glasnost significantly expanded freedom of expression in the media and press, eventually resulting in the complete abolishment of censorship, total freedom of expression and freedom to criticise the government.[27] Culture Worker and Kolkhoz Woman over the northern entrance to the All-Soviet Exhibition Centre in Moscow (today the All-Russia Exhibition Centre) The culture of the Soviet Union passed through several stages during the USSR's 70-year existence. During the first eleven years following the Revolution (1918–1929), there was relative freedom and artists experimented with several different styles in an effort to find a distinctive Soviet style of art. Lenin wanted art to be accessible to the Russian people. The government encouraged a variety of trends. In art and literature, numerous schools, some traditional and others radically experimental, proliferated. Communist writers Maksim Gorky and Vladimir See also • Collapse of the Soviet Union • Dates of establishment of diplomatic relations with the USSR • Droughts and famines in Russia and the USSR • History of the Soviet Union (1953-1985) • History of the Soviet Union (1985-1991) • Human rights in the Soviet Union 16 From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia • Kaliningrad Oblast (see also: German East Prussia) • List of leaders of the Soviet Union • List of Soviet Republics • Military history of the Soviet Union • Population transfer in the Soviet Union • Post-Soviet states • Premier of the Soviet Union • President of the Soviet Union • Prometheism • Public holidays in the Soviet Union • Sovietization • Soviet war in Afghanistan Soviet Union [12] Kenneth S. Deffeyes, Beyond Oil: The View from Hubbert's Peak. [13] The red blues — Soviet politics by Brian Crozier, National Review, June 25, 1990. [14] Origins of Moral-Ethical Crisis and Ways to Overcome it by V.A.Drozhin Honoured Lawyer of Russia. [15] http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/ topic/288956/inquisitorial-procedure [16] http://law.jrank.org/pages/7663/ Inquisitorial-System.html [17] ^ "Main Intelligence Administration (GRU) Glavnoye Razvedovatel'noye Upravlenie - Russia / Soviet Intelligence Agencies". Fas.org. http://www.fas.org/ irp/world/russia/gru/. Retrieved on 2008-11-24. [18] ^ "The SVR Russia's Intelligence Service". Fas.org. http://www.fas.org/irp/ world/russia/svr/c103-gb.htm. Retrieved on 2008-11-24. [19] Country Profile: Russia Foreign & Commonwealth Office of the United Kingdom. [20] Memorandum of Understanding, AcqWeb, February 7, 2007. [21] ^ "1990 CIA World Factbook". Central Intelligence Agency. http://www.umsl.edu/services/govdocs/ wofact90/world12.txt. Retrieved on 2008-03-09. [22] Barbara A. Anderson and Brian D. Silver, "Demographic Sources of the Changing Ethnic Composition of the Soviet Union," Population and Development Review 15 (December 1989): 609–656. [23] Rulers and Victims: The Russians in the Soviet Union, History Today [24] Barbara A. Anderson and Brian D. Silver. 1984. "Equality, Efficiency, and Politics in Soviet Bilingual Education Policy, 1934–1980," American Political Science Review 78 (December): 1019–1039. [25] Rayfield 2004, pp. 317-320. [26] Rayfield 2004, pp. 121-122. [27] "Gorbachev, Mikhail." Encyclopædia Britannica. 2007. Encyclopædia Britannica Online. 2 Oct. 2007 <http://www.britannica.com/eb/ article-9037405>. "Under his new policy of glasnost ("openness"), a major cultural thaw took place: freedoms of expression and of information were significantly expanded; the press and broadcasting were allowed unprecedented candour in their Notes [1] Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. Britannica. [2] Richard Sakwa The Rise and Fall of the Soviet Union, 1917-1991: 1917-1991. Routledge, 1999. ISBN 0415122902, 9780415122900. pp. 140-143. [3] Julian Towster. Political Power in the U.S.S.R., 1917-1947: The Theory and Structure of Government in the Soviet State Oxford Univ. Press, 1948. p. 106. [4] (Russian) Voted Unanimously for the Union. [5] (Russian) Creation of the USSR at Khronos.ru. [6] "70 Years of Gidroproekt and Hydroelectric Power in Russia". http://www.springerlink.com/content/ h3677572g016338u/. [7] (Russian) On GOELRO Plan — at Kuzbassenergo. [8] The consolidation into a single-party regime took place during the first three and a half years after the revolution, which included the period of War Communism and an election in which multiple parties competed. See Leonard Schapiro, The Origin of the Communist Autocracy: Political Opposition in the Soviet State, First Phase 1917–1922. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1955, 1966. [9] Matthew White according to Matthew White's research. [10] (Russian) Mel'tiukhov, Mikhail. Upushchennyi shans Stalina: Sovetskii Soiuz i bor'ba za Evropu 1939–1941. Moscow: Veche, 2000. ISBN 5783811963. [11] W. Tompson, The Soviet Union under Brezhnev, (Edinburgh, 2003), p. 91. 17 From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia reportage and criticism; and the country's legacy of Stalinist totalitarian rule was eventually completely repudiated by the government." Soviet Union New York: Random House, 2004 (hardcover, ISBN 0-375-50632-2); 2005 (paperback, ISBN 0375757716). • Rizzi, Bruno: "The bureaucratization of the world : the first English ed. of the underground Marxist classic that analyzed class exploitation in the USSR" , New York, NY : Free Press, 1985. • Schapiro, Leonard B. The Origin of the Communist Autocracy: Political Opposition in the Soviet State, First Phase 1917–1922. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1955, 1966. Further references • Armstrong, John A. The Politics of Totalitarianism: The Communist Party of the Soviet Union from 1934 to the Present. New York: Random House, 1961. • Brown, Archie, et al., eds.: The Cambridge Encyclopedia of Russia and the Soviet Union (Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 1982). • Gilbert, Martin: The Routledge Atlas of Russian History (London: Routledge, 2002). • Goldman, Minton: The Soviet Union and Eastern Europe (Connecticut: Global Studies, Dushkin Publishing Group, Inc., 1986). • Grant, Ted: Russia, from Revolution to Counter-Revolution, London, Well Red Publications,1997 • Howe, G. Melvyn: The Soviet Union: A Geographical Survey 2nd. edn. (Estover, UK: MacDonald and Evans, 1983). • Katz, Zev, ed.: Handbook of Major Soviet Nationalities (New York: Free Press, 1975). • Moore, Jr., Barrington. Soviet politics: the dilemma of power. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1950. • Rayfield, Donald. Stalin and His Hangmen: The Tyrant and Those Who Killed for Him. External links • Impressions of Soviet Russia, by John Dewey. • Soviet Agitation Posters. • Documents and other forms of media from the Soviet Union: 1917-1991. • Revival Program, Part of the Chechen Rebels. • Soviet Union. • Soviet Calculators Collection — a big collection of Soviet technology goods: calculators, computers, electronic watches, etc. • Bibliographic database of German publications on the Soviet Union - about 175 000 records, English interface will be usable soon This article incorporates public domain material from websites or documents of the Library of Congress Country Studies. Retrieved from "http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Soviet_Union" Categories: Former countries in Europe, Former countries in Asia, Former federations, States and territories established in 1922, 1991 disestablishments, Soviet Union, History of the Soviet Union and Soviet Russia, Communist states, Early Soviet Republics This page was last modified on 21 May 2009, at 01:11 (UTC). All text is available under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License. (See Copyrights for details.) Wikipedia® is a registered trademark of the Wikimedia Foundation, Inc., a U.S. registered 501(c)(3) taxdeductible nonprofit charity. Privacy policy About Wikipedia Disclaimers 18
Pages to are hidden for
"Soviet"Please download to view full document