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Venera 15

Venera 15

Venera 15 and Venera 16 (Russian: Венера-15, Венера-16) were two identical spacecraft sent to Venus by the Soviet Union. Both unmanned orbiters were to map the surface of Venus using high resolution imaging systems. The spacecraft were identical and based on modifications to the earlier Venera space probes.

Mission profile

Venera 15 was launched on June 2 1983 at 02:38:39 UTC, and Venera 16 on June 7 1983 at 02:32:00 UTC. Venera 15 and Venera 16 both reached Venus' orbit (on October 10 1983 and October 14 1983 respectively). The two spacecraft were inserted into Venus orbit a day apart with their orbital planes shifted by an angle of approximately 4° relative to one another. This made it possible to reimage an area if necessary. Each spacecraft was in a nearly polar orbit with a periapsis ~1000 km, at 62°N latitude, and apoapsis ~65000 km, with an inclination ~90°, the orbital period being ~24 hours. In June 1984, Venus was at superior conjunction and passed behind the Sun as seen from Earth. No transmissions were possible, so the orbit of Venera 16 was rotated back 20° at this time to map the areas missed during this period. Together, the two spacecraft imaged the area from the north pole down to about 30°N latitude (i.e. approx. 25 % of Venus surface) over the 8 months of mapping operations.

Spacecraft structure

The Venera 15 and 16 spacecraft were identical and were based on modifications to the orbiter portions of the Venera 9 and Venera 14 probes. Each spacecraft consisted of a 5 m long cylinder with a 6 m diameter, 1.4 m tall parabolic dish antenna for the synthetic aperture radar (SAR) at one end. A 1 meter diameter parabolic dish antenna for the radio altimeter was also located at this end. The electrical axis of the radio altimeter antenna was lined up with the axis of the cylinder. The electrical axis of the SAR deviated from the spacecraft axis by 10 degrees. During imaging, the radio altimeter would be lined up with the center of the planet (local vertical) and the SAR would be looking off to the side at 10 degrees. A bulge at the opposite end of the cylinder held fuel tanks and propulsion units. Two square solar arrays extended like wings from the sides of the cylinder. A 2.6 m radio dish antenna for communications was also attached to the side of the cylinder. The spacecraft each massed 4000 kg. Both Venera 15 and 16 were equipped with a Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR). A radar was necessary in this mission because nothing else would be able to penetrate the dense clouds of Venus. The probes were equipped with on board computers that saved the images until the entire image was complete.

External links


- http://nssdc.gsfc.nasa.gov/database/MasterCatalog?sc=1983-054A
Previous mission:
Venera 14		 Venera program Next mission:
Venera 16 was the last mission
Category:Venera programme

Spacecraft

, 2004.]] A spacecraft is a vehicle that travels through space. Spacecraft include robotic or unmanned space probes as well as manned vehicles. The term is sometimes also used to describe artificial satellites, which have similar design criteria.

Overview

The term spaceship is generally applied only to spacecraft capable of transporting people. A space suit has at times been called a miniature spacecraft or spaceship, emphasizing its purpose of keeping its wearer alive while traveling in the vacuum of outer space. The spacecraft is one of the primal elements in science fiction. Numerous short stories and novels are built up around various ideas for spacecraft. Some hard science fiction books focus on the technical details of the craft, while others treat the spacecraft as a given and delve little into its actual implementation.

Examples of past or existing spacecraft

Manned
- Apollo Spacecraft
- Gemini Spacecraft
- International Space Station
- Mir
- Mercury Spacecraft
- Shuttle Buran
- Shenzhou Spacecraft
- Space Shuttle
- Soyuz Spacecraft
- SpaceShipOne
- Voskhod Spacecraft
- Vostok Spacecraft Unmanned
- Cassini-Huygens
- Cluster
- Deep Space 1
- Genesis
- Mars Exploration Rover
- Mars Global Surveyor
- Mars Pathfinder
- Pioneer 10
- Pioneer 11
- Progress
- SOHO
- Stardust
- Viking 1
- Viking 2
- Voyager 1
- Voyager 2
- WMAP

Spacecraft under development


- Crew Exploration Vehicle
- Kliper
- Automated Transfer Vehicle
- H-II Transfer Vehicle
- Ansari X Prize (incl. a list of spacecraft in various stages of completion as of 2005) The US Space Command, according to its "Long Range Plan", is currently planning to develop a weaponized spaceship, which has yet to be announced.[http://www.fas.org/spp/military/docops/usspac/]

See also


- Attitude control
- Expendable launch system
- Human spaceflight
- List of fictional spaceships
- List of spacecraft
- Spacecraft propulsion
- Space shuttle
- Starship
- Thruster
- Unidentified flying object
- Unmanned space mission

External links


- [http://science.hq.nasa.gov/missions/phase.html NASA: Space Science Spacecraft Missions]
- [http://www.skyrocket.de/space/ Gunter's Space Page - Complete information on spacecraft]
- [http://www.cinespaceships.net/ Cinespaceships - Database on spaceships in movie]
- ja:宇宙船

Venus (Planet)

Venus, the second planet from the Sun, is named after the Roman goddess Venus. A terrestrial planet, it is sometimes called Earth's "sister planet", as the two are very similar in size and bulk composition. Although all planets' orbits are elliptical, Venus's orbit is the closest to circular, with an eccentricity of less than 1%. As Venus is closer to the Sun than the Earth, it always appears in roughly the same direction from Earth as the Sun (the greatest elongation is 47.8°), so on Earth it can usually only be seen a few hours before sunrise or a few hours after sunset. However, when at its brightest, Venus may be seen during the daytime, making it one of only two heavenly bodies that can be seen both day and night (the other being the Moon). It is sometimes referred to as the "Morning Star" or the "Evening Star", and when it is visible in dark skies it is by far the brightest star-like object in the sky. The cycle between one maximum elongation and the next lasts 584 days. After these 584 days Venus is visible in a position 72 degrees away from the previous one. Since 5
- 584 = 2920, which is equivalent to 8
- 365 Venus returns to the same point in the sky every 8 years (minus two leap days). This was known as the Sothis cycle in ancient Egypt, and was familiar to the Maya as well. Another association is with the Moon, because 2920 days equal almost exactly 99 lunations (29.5
- 99 = 2920.5). Venus has a very slow retrograde rotation, meaning that, unlike with most planets, the direction of rotation (around its axis) is the opposite of its orbital rotation (around the Sun). The very slow rotation means that the distinction between the Sidereal day (rotation relative to the stars) and the Solar day (relative to the Sun) is very significant. Solar day The pentagram has long been associated with the planet Venus and the worship of the goddess Venus, or her equivalent. It is most likely to have originated from the observations of prehistoric astronomers. When viewed from Earth, the successive conjunctions of Venus plot the points of a pentagram around the Sun every eight years, returning to its starting point after a forty year cycle. Venus was known to ancient Babylonians around 1600 BC, and to the Mayan civilization (the Mayans developed a religious calendar based on Venus's motion) and must have been known long before in prehistoric times, given that it is the third brightest object in the sky after the Sun and Moon. The Maasai people in Africa named the planet Kileken, and have a myth about it called "The Orphan Boy." The Morning Star was called the Bearer of Light ("phōsphoros" or "eōsphoros" in Greek and "Lucifer" in Latin, a term later used of the fallen angel cast out of heaven, see Isaiah 14:12). To the Jews it was known as Noga ("shining") and it was used in rabbinic literature as a symbol of beauty and purity Isaiah Its symbol is the sign also used in biology for the female sex, a stylized representation of the goddess Venus's hand mirror: a circle with a small cross underneath (Unicode: ♀). The Venus symbol also represents femininity, and in ancient alchemy stood for copper. Alchemists constructed the symbol from a circle (representing spirit) above a cross (representing matter). The association with sex and femininity is supposed to relate to the period of 266 days between the conjunction and maximum elongation of Venus, which corresponds more or less to the length of human pregnancy. The adjective Venusian is commonly used for Venus, but it is etymologically incorrect. The true adjective coming from Latin, Venereal, is avoided because of its modern association with sexually transmitted diseases. Some astronomers use Cytherean, which comes from Cythera. Other less common adjectives include Venerean, Venerian, and Veneran. The Chinese, Korean, Japanese and Vietnamese cultures refer to the planet as the metal star, 金星, based on the Five Elements.

Physical characteristics

Atmosphere

Venus has an atmosphere consisting mainly of carbon dioxide and a small amount of nitrogen, with a pressure at the surface about 90 times that of Earth (a pressure equivalent to a depth of 1 kilometer under Earth's oceans); its atmosphere is also roughly 90 times more massive than ours. This enormously CO2-rich atmosphere results in a strong greenhouse effect that raises the surface temperature more than 400 °C (750 °F) above what it would be otherwise, causing temperatures at the surface to reach extremes as great as 500 °C (930 °F) in low elevation regions near the planet's equator. This makes Venus's surface hotter than Mercury's, even though Venus is nearly twice as distant from the Sun and only receives 25% of the solar irradiance (2613.9 W/m² in the upper atmosphere, and just 1071.1 W/m² at the surface). Owing to the thermal inertia and convection of its dense atmosphere, the temperature does not vary significantly between the night and day sides of Venus despite its extremely slow rotation of less than one rotation per Venusian year, meaning that, at the equator, Venus' surface rotates at a mere 6.5 km/h (4 mph). Upper atmosphere winds circling the planet approximately every 4 days help distribute the heat to other areas on the surface. The solar irradiance is so much lower at the surface of Venus because the planet's thick cloud cover reflects the majority of the sunlight back into space. This prevents most of the sunlight from ever heating the surface. Venus's bolometric albedo is approximately 60%, and its visual light albedo is even greater. Thus, despite being closer to the Sun than Earth, the surface of Venus is not as well heated and even less well lit by the Sun. In the absence of any greenhouse effect, the temperature at the surface of Venus would be quite similar to Earth. A common conceptual misunderstanding regarding Venus is the mistaken belief that its thick cloud cover traps heat, as the opposite is actually true. The cloud cover keeps the planet much cooler than it would be otherwise. The immense quantity of CO2 in the atmosphere is what traps the heat by the greenhouse mechanism. There are strong 300 km/h (200 mph) winds at the cloud tops, but winds at the surface are very slow, no more than a few miles per hour. However, owing to the high density of the atmosphere at Venus's surface, even such slow winds exert a significant amount of force against obstructions. The clouds are mainly composed of sulfur dioxide and sulfuric acid droplets and cover the planet completely, obscuring any surface details from the human eye. The temperature at the tops of these clouds is approximately −45 °C (−50 °F). The mean surface temperature of Venus, as given by NASA, is 464 °C (864 °F). The minimal value of the temperature, listed in the table, refers to cloud tops —the surface temperature is never below 400 °C (750 °F). (This makes the surface temperature hot enough to melt lead.) The atmosphere also contains hydrogen sulfide (H2S) and carbonyl sulfide (SCO). Hydrogen sulfide reacts with sulfur dioxide, which implies that some process must be creating these components. It is unclear how the carbonyl sulfide could be formed--it is often a sign of biological activity. Some have suggested that microbes exist in the clouds (which also contain droplets of water), and produce these components from water, carbon monoxide and sulfur dioxide. [http://www.newscientist.com/article/mg17523621.800.html New Scientist, Sept. 28, 2002, p. 16]

Surface features

sulfur dioxide Venus has slow retrograde rotation, meaning it rotates from east to west, instead of west to east as most of the other major planets do. (Pluto and Uranus also have retrograde rotation, though Uranus's axis, tilted at 97.86 degrees, almost lies in its orbital plane.) It is not known why Venus is different in this manner, although it may be the result of a collision with a very large asteroid at some time in the distant past. If the Sun could be seen from Venus' surface, it would appear to rise and set in a 116.75 day cycle (Venus' synodic rotation period), and a Venusian year would thus last 1.92 Venusian "days". In addition to this unusual retrograde rotation, the periods of Venus' rotation and of its orbit are synchronized in such a way that it always presents the same face toward Earth when the two planets are at their closest approach (5.001 Venusian days between each inferior conjunction). This may simply be a coincidence, but there is some speculation that this may be the result of tidal locking, with tidal forces affecting Venus' rotation whenever the planets get close enough together —although the tides raised by Earth on Venus are vanishingly small. Venus has two major continent-like highlands on its surface, rising over vast plains. The northern highland is named Ishtar Terra and has Venus's highest mountains, named the Maxwell Montes (roughly 2 km taller than Mount Everest) after James Clerk Maxwell, which surround the plateau Lakshmi Planum. Ishtar Terra is about the size of Australia. In the southern hemisphere is the larger Aphrodite Terra, about the size of South America. Between these highlands are a number of broad depressions, including Atalanta Planitia, Guinevere Planitia, and Lavinia Planitia. With only the exception of Maxwell Montes, all surface features on Venus are named after real or mythological females. Venus' thick atmosphere causes meteors to decelerate as they fall toward the surface, and even large meteors will strike the surface at too low a speed to form an impact crater if they have less than a certain threshold kinetic energy. Because of this, no impact crater smaller than about 3 km (2 mi) in diameter can form. Nearly 90% of Venus's surface appears to consist of recently (in the geological sense) solidified basaltic lava, with very few meteorite craters. The oldest features present on Venus seem to be only around 800 million years old, with most of the terrain being considerably younger (though still not less than several hundred million years for the most part). This suggests that Venus underwent a major resurfacing event in the not too distant geological past. The interior of Venus is probably similar to that of Earth: an iron core about 3000 km in radius, with a molten rocky mantle making up the majority of the planet. Recent results from the Magellan gravity data indicate that Venus's crust is stronger and thicker than had previously been assumed. It is theorized that Venus does not have mobile plate tectonics as Earth does, but instead undergoes massive volcanic upwellings at regular intervals that inundate its surface with fresh lava. Other recent findings suggest that Venus is still volcanically active in isolated geological hotspots. Venus's intrinsic magnetic field has been found very weak compared to other planets in the solar system. This may be due to its slow rotation being insufficient to drive an internal dynamo of liquid iron. As a result, solar wind strikes Venus's upper atmosphere without mediation. It is thought that Venus originally had as much water as Earth, but that under the Sun's assault water vapor in the upper atmosphere was split into hydrogen and oxygen, with the hydrogen escaping into space owing to its low molecular mass; the ratio of hydrogen to deuterium (a heavier isotope of hydrogen which doesn't escape as quickly) in Venus's atmosphere seems to support this theory. Molecular oxygen is thought to have combined with atoms in the crust (large amounts of oxygen, however, remain in the atmosphere in the form of carbon dioxide). Because of their dryness, Venus's rocks are much harder than Earth's, which leads to steeper mountains, cliffs and other features.

Venus' moon

Venus was once thought to possess a moon, named Neith after the chief goddess of Sais, Egypt (whose veil no mortal raised), first observed by Giovanni Domenico Cassini in 1672. German astronomers called the moon Kleinchen (literally "tiny"), and sporadic sightings by astronomers continued until 1892. These sightings have since been discredited, and are thought to have been either spurious internal reflections, mostly faint stars that happened to be in the right place at the right time, or maybe even asteroids passing by the planet. Venus is now known to be moonless.

Observations and explorations of Venus

Venus has been observed several times within the past 4000 years by a number of people, including the Greeks.

Appearance

Cultural references

:See also Venus in fiction Until it was penetrated by probes, Venus's opaque cloud layer gave science fiction writers free rein in imagining the planet's surface, and they frequently imagined it to be Earthlike. There are some religious sects who believe that Hell may be located on Venus. Its extremely high surface temperature and impenetrable cloud cover cause people to believe that the fires of Hell burn on the surface, obscured from our earthly view. Conversely, other sects consider Venus to be some form of paradise or an advanced secret base for angels/aliens to operate from.
- In Olaf Stapledon's epic Last and First Men (1930), Venus is an oceanic idyll where humans evolve the power of flight.
- In the mythology of Middle-earth (1937), by J. R. R. Tolkien, Venus is the Star of Eärendil. The star was created when Eärendil the Mariner was set in the sky on his ship, with a Silmaril bound to his brow. In fact, Tolkien chose the name directly from the ancient Old English word for the planet Venus.
- In H. P. Lovecraft's Cthulhu Mythos (1928–), there are mentions of the 'Lords of Venus', and conflicting indications that the Serpent People originated there.
- Edgar Rice Burroughs wrote a series of five books on Venus, featuring hero Carson Napier, who discovers that Venus (or Amtor, as it is known by the Venusians) is a world of sky-high trees, warring kingdoms and princesses in need of rescue. [http://www.tarzan.com/worlds/amtor.html]
- The H. P. Lovecraft and Kenneth Sterling short story 'In the Walls of Eryx' (1939), takes place on Venus, but is not considered part of the Cthulhu Mythos.
- The second book of the Space Trilogy (1938–1945) by C.S. Lewis, Perelandra 1943) takes place on Venus (called by the natives Perelandra), the site of a second garden of Eden.
- In the military science fiction classic Clash by Night (1943) by Henry Kuttner (writing as Lawrence O'Donnell) and C. L. Moore, underwater city-states hire mercenary companies and their battleships to fight their wars on the surface.
- Venus was the home planet of the Mekon, arch-enemy of the 1950s comic book hero Dan Dare.
- Many science-fiction movies and serials of the '50s and '60s, such as Abbott and Costello Go to Mars and Space Patrol, have used Venus' namesake goddess and her domain to contrive planetary populations of nubile women welcoming (or attacking) all-male astronaut crews.
- In the Noon Universe created by the Soviet science fiction writers Boris and Arkady Strugatsky, Venus is depicted as a extremely harsh planet covered by strange flora and fauna but also very rich in minerals and heavy metals. The novel The Land of Crimson Clouds (Strana Bagrovykh Tuch in the original) describes the first successful manned mission to Venus, although a full-scaled colonization of the planet was not initiated until much later (in 2119; see Noon: 22nd Century).
- Venus is the location of several Starfleet Academy training facilities and terraforming stations in the fictional Star Trek universe (1966–).
- In Jacqueline Susann's Yargo (1979), Venus is inhabited by bees that are as big as horses.
- Venus is briefly mentioned in Arthur C. Clarke's 3001: The Final Odyssey (1997).
- A presumably terraformed Venus was the setting of one episode of the anime Cowboy Bebop (1998). In the show, Venus was revealed to be an arid but habitable world. Much of the population lived in floating cities in the sky. In the cartoon Exosquad, terraformed Venus was portrayed as one of the three habitable planets in the solar system (the others being Earth and Mars).
- In the Japanese anime series, Bishoujo Senshi Sailor Moon (1992), Sailor Venus is a soldier representing the planet of the same name. In mythology, Venus is the Roman goddess of love (Aphrodite in Greek), therefore, Sailor Venus's attacks and weapons (e.g. Venus Love Me Chain and Venus Love and Beauty Shock) represent the idea of love and femininity. Her image colours are gold and orange--similar to the colour of the planet. Also, on her forehead is the planet's symbol.
- A more scientifically accurate depiction of the planet is offered in Ben Bova's novel Venus (2000, ISBN 031287216X)-

See also


- List of artificial objects on Venus
- List of mountains on Venus
- List of craters on Venus
- Transit of Venus
- Venus (mythology)
- Planets in astrology
- Ephemeris of Venus
- Geology of Venus

References


- Arnett, Bill (2005). [http://www.nineplanets.org/venus.html Venus]. Retrieved March 27, 2005.
- European Space Agency (2005). [http://www.esa.int/SPECIALS/Venus_Express/ Venus Express overview]. Retrieved March 27, 2005.
- Grayzeck, Ed (2004). [http://nssdc.gsfc.nasa.gov/planetary/factsheet/venusfact.html Venus Fact Sheet]. NASA. Retrieved March 27, 2005.
- Grieger, Bjoern (2004). [http://www.space-vision.biz/product.venuslandscape.de.html Picture “Real Venus”]. Retrieved March 27, 2005.
- The Maya Astronomy Page (2002). [http://www.michielb.nl/maya/venus.html Venus]. Retrieved March 27, 2005.
- Mitchell, Don P. (2004). [http://www.mentallandscape.com/V_Venus.htm The Soviet Exploration of Venus]. Retrieved March 27, 2005.
- Rosenthal, David. (2003). [http://www.ridgecrest.ca.us/~n6tst/maya/newpage.html THE SOUTHERNMOST RISE OF VENUS AT UXMAL, 1997]. Retrieved March 27, 2005.
- Vienna University of Technology (2004). [http://www.vias.org/spacetrip/venus_dimensionalviews.html Venus Three-Dimensional Views]. Retrieved March 27, 2005.
- [http://adsbit.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-iarticle_query?1996JBAA..106...16M]
- [http://www.ibiblio.org//e-notes/VRML/Globe/Globe.htm 3D VRML Venus globe]
- [http://nssdc.gsfc.nasa.gov/planetary/factsheet/venusfact.html Venus Fact Sheet]
Pentagram

- http://www.mikecrowson.co.uk/pentagram.html
- http://www.symbols.com/encyclopedia/29/2914.html
- http://www.hyperflight.com/venus-five-pointed-star.htm
- [http://www.run4space.com/viewforum.php?f=8 Venus Forum]
- ko:금성 ms:Zuhrah ja:金星 simple:Venus (planet) th:ดาวศุกร์

Soviet Union

The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics, abbreviated USSR ( (СССР) ; tr.: Soyuz Sovetskikh Sotsialisticheskikh Respublik [SSSR])), more commonly known as the Soviet Union (; tr.: Sovetsky Soyuz) was an officially socialist state founded in 1922, centered on Russia, and dissolved in 1991. From 1945 until its dissolution it was historically notable as one of the world's two superpowers. The formation of the Soviet Union was the culmination of the Russian Revolution of 1917, which overthrew short-lived Provisional Government (established after Tsar Nicholas II abdicated on March 15, 1917), and later the Red Army victory in the violent Russian Civil War from 1918-1920. The geographic boundaries of the Soviet Union varied with time, but by 1945 it approximately corresponded to that of historic Imperial Russia, with the notable exclusions of Poland and Finland. The geographic size of the Soviet Union remained from 1945 until its dissolution. The Soviet Union, founded three decades before the Cold War, became a primary model for future Communist states; the socialist government and the political organization of the country were defined by the only permitted political party, the Communist Party of the Soviet Union.

History

The Soviet Union is traditionally considered to be the successor of the Russian Empire. The last Russian monarch, Tsar Nicholas II, ruled until March 1917 and was eventually executed. The Soviet Union was established in December 1922 as the union of the Russian, Ukrainian, Belarusian, and Transcaucasian Soviet republics ruled by Bolshevik parties. By Soviet historiography, revolutionary activity in Russia 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 1905 Revolution but political and social unrest continued and was aggravated during World War I by military defeat and food shortages. A spontaneous popular uprising in Petrograd, in response to the wartime decay of Russia's physical well-being and morale, culminated in the toppling of the imperial government in March 1917 (see February Revolution). The autocracy was replaced by the Provisional Government, whose leaders intended to establish democracy in Russia and to continue participating on the side of the Allies 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 radical Bolsheviks, led by Vladimir Ilyich Lenin, agitated 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 combat between government forces and foreign troops in several parts of Russia, was the new communist regime secure. In a related conflict, the "Peace of Riga" in early 1921 split disputed territories in Belarus and Ukraine between Poland and Soviet powers. From its first years, government in the Soviet Union was based on the one-party rule of the Communist Party, as the Bolsheviks called themselves beginning in March 1918. After the extraordinary 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). 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, notably Lenin's more obvious heir Leon Trotsky, Joseph Stalin became the sole leader of the Soviet Union by the end of the 1920s. In 1928 Stalin introduced the First Five-Year Plan for building a socialist economy. In industry the state assumed control over all existing enterprises and undertook an intensive program of industrialization; in agriculture collective farms were established all over the country (see Collectivisation in the USSR). The Soviet Union became a major industrial power; but the plan's implementation produced widespread misery for some segments of the population. Collectivization met widespread resistance from peasants, resulting in a bitter struggle against the authorities in many areas, famine, and estimated millions of casualties. Social upheaval continued in the mid-1930s, when Stalin began a purge of the party (see Great Purges). Yet despite this turmoil, the Soviet Union developed a powerful industrial economy in the years before World War II. Although Stalin tried to avert war with Germany by concluding the Nazi-Soviet Nonaggression Pact, which involved the invasion of Poland, in 1939, Germany invaded the Soviet Union in 1941. It has been debated that the Soviet Union had the intention of invading Germany once it was strong enough. The Red Army stopped the Nazi offensive, with the Battle of Stalingrad in 1943 being the major turning point, and drove through Eastern Europe to Berlin before Germany surrendered in 1945 (see Great Patriotic War). Although ravaged by the war, the Soviet Union emerged from the conflict as an acknowledged superpower. superpower after the fall of Nazi Germany]] 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 postwar reconstruction in Eastern Europe, set up the Warsaw Pact and 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 Cold War, turned the Soviet Union's wartime allies, the United Kingdom and the United States, into foes. Joseph 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 won the power struggle by the mid-1950s, denounced Stalin's use of repression and eased repressive controls over party and society (see de-Stalinization). During this period the Soviet Union launched the first satellite Sputnik 1 and man Yuri Gagarin into orbit. Khrushchev's reforms in agriculture and administration, however, were generally unproductive, and foreign policy toward China and the United States suffered reverses. Khrushchev's colleagues in the leadership removed him from power in 1964. Following the ouster 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. 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, while agricultural development continued to lag. Throughout the period the Soviet Union maintained parity with the United States in the areas of military technology but this expansion ultimately crippled 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. 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. After the rapid succession of Yuri Andropov and Konstantin Chernenko, transitional figures with deep roots in Brezhnevite tradition, the energetic Mikhail Gorbachev made significant changes in the economy (see Perestroika) and the party leadership. His policy of glasnost freed public access to information after decades of government regulations. In late 1980s constituent republics of the Soviet Union started declaring sovereignty over their territories or even independence citing Article 72 of USSR Constitution, which stated that any constituent republic was free to secede. Many republics proceeded to produce legislation contradicting the Union laws in what was known as "The War of Laws." In 1989 Russian SFSR, which was then the largest constituent republic (with about 2/3 of population and territory) convened a Congress of Deputies. Boris Yeltsin was elected the chairman of the Congress. On June 12, 1989 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 for the next three years as constituent republics slowly growing de-facto independent. A referendum for the preservation of the USSR was held on March 17, 1991, with the population voting for preservation of the Union in most republics. The referendum gave Gorbachev a minor boost, and in the summer of 1991 an new Union Treaty was designed and agreed upon by most republics which would have turned the Soviet Union into a much looser federation. The signing of the treaty, however, was interrupted by the August Coup - an attempted coup d'état against Mikhail Gorbachev by conservative members of the Communist Party, referred to as "Hardliners" by the Western media. After the coup was defeated, Yeltsin came out as a hero while Gorbachev's power was greatly reduced. The balance of power tipped significantly towards the republics. Latvia, Estonia and Lithuania were immediately granted independence, while the other 12 republics continued discussing new, increasingly looser, models of the Union. On December 8 1991 Presidents of Russia, Ukraine and Belarus signed Belavezha Accords which declared the Union dissolved and established the Commonwealth of Independent States in its place. While doubts remained over their authority to dissolve the Union, on 25 December 1991, Gorbachev resigned as the president of the USSR and turned the powers of his office over to Boris Yeltsin. The following day, the Supreme Soviet, the highest governmental body of the Soviet Union, dissolved itself. This is generally recognized as the official, final dissolution of the Soviet Union as a functioning nation. Many organizations such as the Red Army and Police forces continued to remain in place in the early months of 1992, but were slowly phased out or absorbed by the newly independent nations.

Politics

Supreme Soviet] 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 democratic political systems. For instance, a constitution established all organs 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 legislative branch, 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 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. 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 Marxism-Leninism. The CPSU leadership could radically change the constitution or remake it completely, as it did several times throughout its history. 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 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. The judiciary was not independent. 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 common law jurisdictions. Rather, Soviet law utilised the system derived from Roman law, where judge, procurator and defense attorney worked collaboratively to establish the truth. The Soviet Union was a federal state made up of fifteen republics joined together in a theoretically voluntary union. 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. 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.

Leaders of the Soviet Union

The official leader of the Soviet Union was the First/General Secretary of the CPSU. The head of government was considered the Premier, and the head of state was considered the President. The Soviet leader could also have one (or both) of these positions, along with the position of General-Secretary of the party. :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 Presidents :(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))

Foreign relations

:Main article: Foreign relations of the Soviet Union Foreign relations of the Soviet Union] Once denied diplomatic recognition by the capitalist world, the Soviet Union had official relations with the majority of the nations of the world by the late 1980s. The Soviet Union also had progressed from being an outsider in international organizations and negotiations to being one of the arbiters of Europe'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). The Soviet Union emerged from World War II as one of the two major world powers, a position maintained for four decades through its hegemony in Eastern Europe (see Eastern Bloc), military 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 socialist system of states in Eastern Europe united by military and economic agreements. Established in 1949 as an economic bloc of communist countries led by Moscow, the Council for Mutual Economic Assistance (COMECON) served as a framework for cooperation among the planned economies of the Soviet Union, and, later, for trade and economic cooperation with the Third World. The military counterpart to the Comecon was the Warsaw Pact. The Soviet economy was also of major importance to Eastern Europe because of imports of vital natural resources from Russia, such as natural gas. 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 stable allies. 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 led to the Sino-Soviet split and 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 FBI and the CIA (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 Russia by the SVR (Foreign Intelligence Service). The KGB was not without substantial oversight. The GRU (Main Intelligence Directorate), not publicized by Russia 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 client states. The GRU continues to operate in Russia today, with resources estimated by some to exceed those of the SVR [http://www.fas.org/irp/world/russia/gru/] [http://www.fas.org/irp/world/russia/svr/c103-gb.htm]. military intelligence]] In the 1970s, the Soviet Union achieved rough nuclear parity with the United States. 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 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. 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. When Mikhail Gorbachev succeeded Konstantin Chernenko as General Secretary of the CPSU in 1985, it signalled a dramatic change in Soviet foreign policy. Gorbachev pursued conciliatory policies toward 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. After the dissolution of the Soviet Union on 25 December, 1991, the Russian Federation claimed to be the legal successor to the Soviet state on the international stage despite its loss of superpower status. Russian foreign policy repudiated Marxism-Leninism as a guide to action, soliciting Western support for capitalist reforms in post-Soviet Russia.

Republics

Russian Federation)]] The Soviet Union was a federation 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 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: # to be located on the periphery of the Soviet Union so as to be able to exercise their alleged right to secession; # be economically strong enough to survive on their own upon secession; and # 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. The remaining 15 republics lasted until 1991. Secession 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. In its final state, the Soviet Union consisted of the following republics. (See Republics of the Soviet Union for the list and timeline of other Union republics that existed over time.)

Economy

Republics of the Soviet Union power stations in the Soviet Union]] Prior to its collapse, the Soviet Union had the largest centrally directed economy in the world. The government established its economic priorities through central planning, a system under which administrative decisions rather than the market determined resource allocation and prices. Since the Bolshevik Revolution of 1917, the country grew from a largely underdeveloped peasant society with minimal industry to become the second largest industrial power in the world. According to Soviet statistics, the country's share in world industrial production grew from 4 percent to 20 percent between 1913 and 1980. Although many Western analysts considered these claims to be inflated, the Soviet achievement remained remarkable. Recovering from the calamitous events of World War II, the country's economy had maintained a continuous though uneven rate of growth. Living standards, although still modest for most inhabitants by Western standards, had improved. Although these past achievements were impressive, in the mid-1980s Soviet leaders faced many problems. Production in the consumer and agricultural sectors was often inadequate (see Agriculture of the Soviet Union and shortage economy). 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, famine, particularly in Ukraine, but also in the Volga River area and Kazakhstan. In the consumer and service sectors, a lack of investment resulted in black markets in some areas. black market] In addition, since the 1970s, the growth rate had slowed substantially. Extensive economic development, based on vast inputs of materials and labor, was no longer possible; yet the productivity of Soviet assets remained low compared with other major industrialized countries. Product quality needed improvement. Soviet leaders faced a fundamental dilemma: the strong central controls that had traditionally guided economic development had failed to promote the creativity and productivity urgently needed in a highly developed, modern economy. Conceding the weaknesses of their past approaches in solving new problems, the leaders of the late 1980s were seeking to mold a program of economic reform to galvanize the economy. The leadership, headed by Mikhail Gorbachev, was experimenting with solutions to economic problems with an openness (glasnost) never before seen in the history of the economy. One method for improving productivity appeared to be a strengthening of the role of market forces. Yet reforms in which market forces assumed a greater role would signify a lessening of authority and control by the planning hierarchy. Assessing developments in the economy was difficult for Western observers. The country contained enormous economic and regional disparities. Yet analyzing statistical data broken down by region was a cumbersome process. Furthermore, Soviet statistics themselves might have been of limited use to Western analysts because they are not directly comparable with those used in Western countries. The differing statistical concepts, valuations, and procedures used by communist and noncommunist economists made even the most basic data, such as the relative productivity of various sectors, difficult to assess.

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. Due to the sheer size of the state, the climate varied greatly from subtropical and continental to subarctic and polar. 11 percent of the land was arable, 16 percent was meadows and pasture, 41 percent was forest and woodland, and 32 percent was declared "other" (including tundra). The Soviet Union measured some 10,000 kilometers from Kaliningrad on the Gulf of Gdańsk in the west to Ratmanova Island (Big Diomede Island) in the Bering Strait, or roughly equivalent to the distance from Edinburgh, Scotland, east 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 kilometers 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.

Demographics and society

The Soviet Union was one of the world's most ethnically diverse countries, with more than 150 distinct ethnic groups within its borders. The total population was estimated at 293 million in 1991. The majority of the population were Russians (50.78%), followed by Ukrainians (15.45%) and Uzbeks (5.84%). After all Soviet republics gained independence, Russia remained the largest country in the world by area, and still remains one of the most ethnically diverse.

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. Generally, the Russians and most of the non-Russian subjects of the empire shared little in common—culturally, religiously, or linguistically. More often than not, two or more diverse nationalities were collocated 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 seventy years, Soviet leaders had maintained that frictions between the many nationalities of the Soviet Union had been eliminated and that the Soviet Union consisted of a family of nations living harmoniously together. However, the national ferment that shook almost every corner of the Soviet Union in the late 1980s proved that seventy years of communist rule had failed to obliterate national and ethnic differences and that traditional cultures and religions would reemerge given the slightest opportunity. This reality facing Gorbachev and his colleagues meant that, short of relying on the traditional use of force, they had to find alternative solutions in order to prevent the disintegration of the Soviet Union. 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.

Religious groups

linguistically]] The state was separated from church by the Decree of Council of People's Comissars 1918 January 23. Official figures on the number of religious believers in the Soviet Union were not available in 1989. But according to various Soviet and Western sources, over one-third of the people in the Soviet Union, an officially atheistic state, professed religious belief. Christianity and Islam had the most believers. Christians belonged to various churches: Orthodox, which had the largest number of followers; Catholic; and Baptist and various other Protestant sects. There were many churches in the country (7500 Russian Orthodox churches in 1974). The majority of the Islamic faithful were Sunni. Although there were many ethnic Jews in the Soviet Union, actual practice of Judaism was rare in Communist times. Jews were the victims of state-sponsored anti-semitism and were one of the few Soviet citizens allowed to emigrate from the country. Other religions, which were practiced by a relatively small number of believers, included Buddhism, Lamaism, and shamanism, a religion based on spiritualism. The role of religion in the daily lives of Soviet citizens varied greatly. Because Islamic religious tenets and social values of Muslims are closely interrelated, religion appeared to have a greater influence on Muslims than on either Christians or other believers. 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. For the majority of Soviet citizens, therefore, religion seemed irrelevant.

Culture

shamanism] All media in the Soviet Union were controlled by the state including television and radio broadcasting, newspaper, magazine and book publishing. This extended to the fine arts including the theatre, opera and ballet. Art and Music was controlled by ownership of distribution and performance venues. Censorship was made in cases where performances did not meet with the favour of the Soviet leadership with newspaper campaigns against offending material and sanctions applied though party controlled professional organizations.
- Soviet education
- Soviet cinema
- Soviet television
- USSR at the Summer Olympics
- USSR at the Winter Olympics
- USSR Chess Championship
- Palace of Culture
- Research in the Soviet Union
- Soviet Ballroom dances
- Soviet Student Olympiads
- Great Soviet Encyclopedia

Holidays

Related articles


- Post-Soviet states
- Prometheism
- List of Soviet Leaders
- List of premiers of the Soviet Union
- List of the presidents of the Soviet Union

Further reading


- 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).
- 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).
- 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

External links


- [http://www.marxists.org/history/ussr/art/photography/index.htm Images of the Soviet Union] - a collection of photos showing everyday life in the Soviet Union
- [http://geocities.com/deweytextsonline/isr.htm Impressions of Soviet Russia, by John Dewey]
- [http://www.n-wisdom.com/map_volume/world_map/Western_Soviet_Union_map.jpg Map of Western USSR]
- [http://www.angelfire.com/de/Cerskus/english/saitai.html Leonas Cerskus (the highest judge, a God):Crimes against Humanity committed by the Soviet Union]
- [http://koeln.tucker.in/music/gimn_sowjetskowo_sojusa.mp3 Melody of the Soviet National Anthem]
- Vladimir Lenin: What Is Soviet Power? (Text of the speech, )

References


- - [http://lcweb2.loc.gov/frd/cs/sutoc.html Soviet Union] Category:Communism Category:Former countries Category:History of the Soviet Union and Soviet Russia Category:Former countries in Europe ko:소비에트 연방 ja:ソビエト連邦 simple:Soviet Union th:สหภาพโซเวียต

June 2

2 June is the 153rd day of the year in the Gregorian calendar (154th in leap years), with 212 days remaining.

Events


- 455 - The Vandals enter Rome, and plunder the city for two weeks.
- 576 - Benedict I becomes Pope.
- 657 - St. Eugene I becomes Pope.
- 1615 - First Récollet missionaries arrive at Quebec City, from Rouen, France.
- 1763 - Pontiac's Rebellion: At what is now Mackinaw City, Michigan, Chippewas capture Fort Michilimackinac by diverting the garrison's attention with a game of lacrosse, then chasing a ball into the fort.
- 1774 - Intolerable Acts: The Quartering Act, requiring American colonists to let British soldiers into their homes, is reenacted.
- 1780 - The Derby horse race, was first held.
- 1793 - Jean Paul Marat recites the names of 29 people to the French National Convention. Almost all of these are guillotined, followed by 17,000 more over the course of the next year during the Reign of Terror.
- 1800 - First smallpox vaccination in North America, at Trinity, Newfoundland.
- 1835 - P.T. Barnum and his circus begins first tour of the United States.
- 1848 - Slavic congress in Prague begins.
- 1855 - The Portland Rum Riot occurs in Portland, Maine.
- 1865 - American Civil War ends - Forces under Confederate General Edmund Kirby Smith surrender at Galveston, Texas, becoming the last to do so.
- 1886 - U.S. President Grover Cleveland marries Frances Folsom in the White House, becoming the only president to wed in the executive mansion.
- 1896 - Guglielmo Marconi receives a patent for his newest invention: the radio.
- 1897 - Mark Twain, responding to rumors that he was dead, is quoted by the New York Journal as saying, "The report of my death was an exaggeration."
- 1909 - Alfred Deakin becomes Prime Minister of Australia for the third time.
- 1924 - U.S. President Calvin Coolidge signs Indian Citizenship Act into law, granting citizenship to all Native Americans born within the territorial limits of the United States.
- 1925 - Wally Pipp, first baseman of the New York Yankees, asks for a day off due to a headache. He is replaced in the lineup by Lou Gehrig, who also starts the next 2,128 consecutive games.
- 1935 - Baseballer Babe Ruth announces he is going to retire from the sport.
- 1946 - Birth of the Italian Republic: In a referendum Italians decide to turn Italy from a monarchy into a Republic. After this referendum the king of Italy Umberto II di Savoia was exiled.
- 1953 - Coronation of Queen Elizabeth II of the United Kingdom, the first to be televised.
- 1955 - USSR and Yugoslavia sign the Belgrade declaration and thus normalize relations between both countries, discontinued since 1948.
- 1965 - Vietnam War: The first contingent of Australian combat troops arrives in South Vietnam.
- 1966 - Surveyor program: Surveyor 1 lands in Oceanus Procellarumon the Moon, becoming the first US spacecraft to soft land on another world.
- 1967 - Protests in West Berlin against the arrival of the Shah of Iran turn into riots, during which Benno Ohnesorg is killed by a police officer. His death results in the founding of the terrorist group Movement 2 June.
- 1969 - In Ottawa, Canada the National Arts Center opens its doors to the public for the first time.
- 1979 - Pope John Paul II visits his native Poland, becoming the first Pope to visit a Communist country.
- 1985 - Serial killer Leonard Lake is arrested near San Francisco, California for shoplifting.
- 1985 - R.J. Reynolds and Nabisco propose a merger
- 1995 - United States Air Force Captain Scott O'Grady's F-16 is shot down over Bosnia while patrolling the NATO no-fly zone.
- 1997 - Timothy McVeigh is convicted on 15 counts of murder and conspiracy for his role in the 1995 terrorist bombing of the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma.
- 1998 - Voters in California approved California Proposition 227, abolishing that state's bilingual education program.
- 1998 - The CIH computer virus is discovered in Taiwan.
- 1999 - The Bhutan Broadcasting Service finally brings television transmissions to the Kingdom for the first time.
- 2003 - Thousands of defeated Iraqi troops march on the U.S. occupation headquarters in Baghdad, demanding pay.
- 2004 - The first episode of Ken Jennings's incredible reign as Jeopardy! champion airs. He starts out with $37,201 and would go on to win more than two million dollars.

Births


- 926 - Murakami, Emperor of Japan (d. 967)
- 1535 - Pope Leo XI (d. 1605)
- 1740 - Marquis de Sade, French author (d. 1814)
- 1773 - John Randolph, U.S. Senator from Virginia (d. 1833)
- 1835 - Pope Pius X (d. 1914)
- 1840 - Thomas Hardy, English poet, novelist (d. 1928)
- 1857 - Edward Elgar, English composer (d. 1934)
- 1857 - Karl Adolph Gjellerup, Danish writer, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1919)
- 1863 - Felix Weingartner, Yugoslavian conductor (d. 1942)
- 1865 - George Lohmann, English cricketer (d. 1901)
- 1887 - Howard Johnson, American songwriter (d. 1941)
- 1891 - Thurman Arnold, American attorney and jurist (d. 1969)
- 1899 - Lotte Reiniger, German film director (d. 1981)
- 1904 - Johnny Weissmuller, American swimmer and actor (d. 1984)
- 1907 - Dorothy West, American writer (d. 1998)
- 1913 - Barbara Pym, English novelist (d. 1980)
- 1917 - Heinz Sielmann, German photographer and filmmaker
- 1920 - Marcel Reich-Ranicki, Polish critic
- 1920 - Tex Schramm, American football team president and general manager (d. 2003)
- 1922 - Charlie Sifford, American golfer
- 1929 - Norton Juster, American author and architect
- 1935 - Carol Shields, American-born novelist (d. 2003)
- 1936 - Sally Kellerman, American actress
- 1940 - King Constantine II of Greece
- 1941 - Stacy Keach, American actor
- 1941 - Charlie Watts, English musician (The Rolling Stones)
- 1942 - Barry Levinson, American producer
- 1943 - Ilayaraja, Music Composer,Tamil Nadu, India
- 1944 - Marvin Hamlisch, American composer and musician
- 1946 - Peter Sutcliffe, English murderer
- 1948 - Jerry Mathers, American actor
- 1949 - Heather Couper, British astronomer
- 1949 - Frank Rich, American theater critic and political columnist
- 1951 - Larry Robinson, Canadian hockey player
- 1953 - Craig Stadler, American golfer
- 1954 - Dennis Haysbert, American actor
- 1955 - Dana Carvey, American actor and comedian
- 1957 - King Lizzard, Las Vegas Entertainer
- 1958 - Lawrence Pfohl, American professional wrestler
- 1959 - Lydia Lunch, American singer
- 1960 - Kyle Petty, American race car driver
- 1960 - Tony Hadley, English Singer
- 1962 - Clyde Drexler, American basketball player
- 1965 - Mark Waugh, Australian cricketer
- 1965 - Steve Waugh, Australian cricketer
- 1971 - Anthony Montgomery, American actor
- 1972 - Wayne Brady, American actor and comedian
- 1974 - Gata Kamsky, American chess player
- 1976 - Earl Boykins, American basketball player
- 1978 - Justin Long, American actor
- 1978 - A.J. Styles, American professional wrestler
- 1982 - Andres Nuiamäe, Estonian soldier (killed in action) (d. 2004)
- 1982 - Jewel Staite, Canadian actress
- 1989 - Freddy Adu, Ghanaian footballer

Deaths


- 829 - Saint Nicephorus, Patriarch of Constantinople (b. 758)
- 1418 - Katherine of Lancaster, queen of Henry III of Castile
- 1567 - Shane O'Neill, Irish chieftain
- 1581 - James Douglas, 4th Earl of Morton, regent of Scotland
- 1693 - John Wildman, English soldier and politician
- 1701 - Madeleine de Scudéry, French writer (b. 1607)
- 1716 - Ogata Korin, Japanese painter
- 1754 - Ebenezer Erskine, Scottish religious dissenter (b. 1680)
- 1761 - Jonas Alströmer, Swedish industrialist (b. 1685)
- 1785 - Jean Paul de Gua de Malves, French mathematician (b. 1713)
- 1876 - Hristo Botev, Bulgarian revolutionary (b. 1848)
- 1882 - Giuseppe Garibaldi, Italian revolutionarist (b. 1807)
- 1901 - George Leslie Mackay, Canadian missionary (b. 1844)
- 1933 - Frank Jarvis, American athlete (b. 1878)
- 1941 - Lou Gehrig, baseball player (b. 1903)
- 1956 - Jean Hersholt, Danish actor and humanitarian (b. 1886)
- 1961 - George S. Kaufman, American playwright (b. 1889)
- 1962 - Vita Sackville-West, English writer, and gardener (b. 1892)
- 1967 - Benno Ohnesorg, German student of Romance languages and literature (b. 1940)
- 1970 - Bruce McLaren, New Zealand car racer, designer, and manufacturer (b. 1937)
- 1970 - Giuseppe Ungaretti, Italian poet (b. 1888)
- 1982 - Fazal Ilahi Chaudhry, Pakistani politician (b. 1904)
- 1987 - Sammy Kaye, American bandleader (b. 1910)
- 1987 - Andres Segovia, Spanish guitarist (b. 1893)
- 1990 - Rex Harrison, English actor (b. 1908)
- 1992 - Phillip Dunne, American film director (b. 1908)
- 1996 - Ray Combs, American game show host and comedian (b. 1956)
- 1996 - Leon Garfield, English children's author (b. 1921)
- 1998 - Sylvester Ritter, American professional wrestler (b. 1953)
- 2001 - Imogene Coca, American actress (b. 1908)
- 2001 - Joey Maxim, American boxer (b. 1922)
- 2003 - Fred Blassie, American professional wrestler (b. 1918)
- 2005 - Samir Kassir, Lebanese journalist and teacher (b. 1950)
- 2005 - George Mikan, American basketball player (b. 1924)

Holidays and observances


- The Greek Orthodox Church commemorates Saint Nicephorus' death - see also March 13
- Italy's Festa della Repubblica (Republic Day), which commemorates the birth of the Repubblica Italiana and the end of the monarchy.

External links


- [http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/june/2 BBC: On This Day] ---- June 1 - June 3 - May 2 - July 2 -- listing of all days ko:6월 2일 ms:2 Jun ja:6月2日 simple:June 2 th:2 มิถุนายน

UTC

:For alternate uses of UTC see UTC (disambiguation) Coordinated Universal Time or UTC, also sometimes referred to as "Zulu time" or Z, is an atomic realization of Universal Time (UT) or Greenwich Mean Time, the astronomical basis for civil time. Time zones around the world are expressed as positive and negative offsets from UT. UTC differs by an integral number of seconds from International Atomic Time (TAI), as measured by atomic clocks and a fractional number of seconds from UT. UTC is a hybrid time scale: the rate of UTC is based on atomic frequency standards but the epoch of UTC is synchronized to remain close to astronomical UT. The Earth's rotation is very slowly decelerating (due to braking action of the tides), hence the mean solar day has increased since TAI was introduced on 1 January 1958 (under another name). For this reason, UT is 'slower' than TAI. As of 1 January 1999, TAI was ahead of UTC by 32 seconds, consisting of a 10-second offset introduced on 1 January 1972 to account for all variations between 1958 and 1971, plus an additional 22 leap seconds introduced between 1972 and 1998. UTC is maintained within 0.9 s of UT1 (UT1 is one of three precise definitions of UT); leap seconds are added (or, theoretically, subtracted) at the end of any UTC month as necessary. The primary dates for leap second adjustments are at the end of the day on June 30 and December 31. The secondary dates, which to date have bee