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From 1861 to 1890 the Munich publishing firm of Braun and Schneider published plates of historic and contemporary costume in their magazine Munchener Bilderbogen.<br/><br/> These plates were eventually collected in book form and published at the turn of the century in Germany and England.
The Aceh War, also known as the Dutch War or the Infidel War (1873–1914), was an armed military conflict between the Sultanate of Aceh and the Netherlands which was triggered by discussions between representatives of Aceh and the United Kingdom in Singapore during early 1873.<br/><br/> The war was part of a series of conflicts in the late 19th century that consolidated Dutch rule over modern-day Indonesia.
Beria was the longest-lived and most influential of Stalin's secret police chiefs, wielding his most substantial influence during and after World War II. He simultaneously administered vast sections of the Soviet state and served as de facto Marshal of the Soviet Union in command of the NKVD field units responsible for anti-partisan operations on the Eastern Front during World War II.<br/><br/> Beria administered the vast expansion of the Gulag labor camps and was primarily responsible for overseeing the secret defense institutions known as <i>sharashkas</i>, critical to the war effort. He also played the decisive role in coordinating the Soviet partisans, developing an impressive intelligence and sabotage network behind German lines. He attended the Yalta Conference with Stalin, who introduced him to U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt as 'our Himmler'.<br/><br/> Beria was promoted to First Deputy Premier, where he carried out a campaign of liberalization. He was briefly a part of the ruling 'troika' with Georgy Malenkov and Vyacheslav Molotov. Beria's overconfidence in his position after Stalin's death led him to misjudge other Politburo members. During the coup d'état led by Nikita Khrushchev and assisted by the military forces of Marshal Georgy Zhukov, Beria was arrested on charges of treason during a meeting in which the full Politburo condemned him. The compliance of the NKVD was ensured by Zhukov's troops, and after interrogation Beria was taken to the basement of the Lubyanka and shot.
Grigory Yevseevich Zinoviev (September 23 1883 – August 25, 1936), born Ovsei-Gershon Aronovich Radomyslsky, known also under the name Hirsch Apfelbaum, was a Bolshevik revolutionary and a Soviet Communist politician.<br/><br/> Zinoviev is best remembered as the longtime head of the Communist International and the architect of several failed attempts to transform Germany into a communist country during the early 1920s. He was in competition against Joseph Stalin who eliminated him from the Soviet political leadership. He was the chief defendant in a 1936 show trial, the Trial of the Sixteen, that marked the start of the so-called Great Terror in the USSR and resulted in his execution the day after his conviction in August 1936.
Vietnam: The Mandarin of the port of Haiphong with the director of police, 1883. (Colourization by Raúl Gil Sarmiento). French Indochina (French: Indochine française; Khmer: សហភាព​ឥណ្ឌូចិន, Vietnamese: Đông Dương thuộc Pháp, frequently abbreviated to Đông Pháp) was part of the French colonial empire in southeast Asia. A federation of the three Vietnamese regions, Tonkin (North), Annam (Central), and Cochinchina (South), as well as Cambodia, was formed in 1887.
Nikolai Yezhov's time in charge is sometimes known as the 'Yezhovshchina' ('the Yezhov era'), a term coined during the de-Stalinization campaign of the 1950s. After presiding over mass arrests and executions during the Great Purge, Yezhov became a victim of it himself. He was arrested, confessed under torture to a range of anti-Soviet activity, and was executed in 1940.<br/><br/> By the beginning of World War II, his status within the Soviet Union became that of a political non-person. Among art historians, he has the nickname 'The Vanishing Commissar' because after his execution, his likeness was retouched out of an official press photo; he is among the best known examples of the Soviet press making someone who had fallen out of favor 'disappear'.
Felix Dzerzhinsky is best known for establishing and developing the Soviet secret police forces; serving as their director from 1917 to 1926. Later he was a member of the Soviet government heading several commissariats; while being the chief of the Soviet secret police.<br/><br/> The Cheka soon became notorious for mass summary executions; performed especially during the Red Terror and the Russian Civil War.
The <i>Kempeitai</i> ('Military Police Corps') was the military police arm of the Imperial Japanese Army from 1881 to 1945. It was not a conventional military police, but more of a secret police, akin to Nazi Germany's Gestapo.<br/><br/> While it was institutionally part of the Imperial Japanese Army, it also discharged the functions of the military police for the Imperial Japanese Navy under the direction of the Admiralty Minister (although the IJN had its own much smaller <i>Tokkeitai</i>), those of the executive police under the direction of the Interior Minister, and those of the judicial police under the direction of the Justice Minister.<br/><br/> A member of the corps was called a <i>Kempei</i>.
Beria was the longest-lived and most influential of Stalin's secret police chiefs, wielding his most substantial influence during and after World War II. He simultaneously administered vast sections of the Soviet state and served as de facto Marshal of the Soviet Union in command of the NKVD field units responsible for anti-partisan operations on the Eastern Front during World War II.<br/><br/> Beria administered the vast expansion of the Gulag labor camps and was primarily responsible for overseeing the secret defense institutions known as <i>sharashkas</i>, critical to the war effort. He also played the decisive role in coordinating the Soviet partisans, developing an impressive intelligence and sabotage network behind German lines. He attended the Yalta Conference with Stalin, who introduced him to U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt as 'our Himmler'.<br/><br/> Beria was promoted to First Deputy Premier, where he carried out a campaign of liberalization. He was briefly a part of the ruling 'troika' with Georgy Malenkov and Vyacheslav Molotov. Beria's overconfidence in his position after Stalin's death led him to misjudge other Politburo members. During the coup d'état led by Nikita Khrushchev and assisted by the military forces of Marshal Georgy Zhukov, Beria was arrested on charges of treason during a meeting in which the full Politburo condemned him. The compliance of the NKVD was ensured by Zhukov's troops, and after interrogation Beria was taken to the basement of the Lubyanka and shot.
Grigory Yevseevich Zinoviev (September 23 1883 – August 25, 1936), born Ovsei-Gershon Aronovich Radomyslsky, known also under the name Hirsch Apfelbaum, was a Bolshevik revolutionary and a Soviet Communist politician.<br/><br/> Zinoviev is best remembered as the longtime head of the Communist International and the architect of several failed attempts to transform Germany into a communist country during the early 1920s. He was in competition against Joseph Stalin who eliminated him from the Soviet political leadership. He was the chief defendant in a 1936 show trial, the Trial of the Sixteen, that marked the start of the so-called Great Terror in the USSR and resulted in his execution the day after his conviction in August 1936.
Nikolai Yezhov, head of the NKVD from 1936 to 1938, was arrested and executed in 1938 as an 'enemy of the people'. In 1940 Yezhov was shot in an execution chamber with a sloping floor, which was for hosing and had been built according to Yezhov's own specifications near the Lubyanka.<br/><br/> After his execution, Yezhov was painstakingly removed from this image, earning him the posthumous nickname 'the Vanishing Commissar'.
Felix Dzerzhinsky is best known for establishing and developing the Soviet secret police forces; serving as their director from 1917 to 1926. Later he was a member of the Soviet government heading several commissariats; while being the chief of the Soviet secret police.<br/><br/> The Cheka soon became notorious for mass summary executions; performed especially during the Red Terror and the Russian Civil War.
The <i>Kempeitai</i> ('Military Police Corps') was the military police arm of the Imperial Japanese Army from 1881 to 1945. It was not a conventional military police, but more of a secret police, akin to Nazi Germany's Gestapo.<br/><br/> While it was institutionally part of the Imperial Japanese Army, it also discharged the functions of the military police for the Imperial Japanese Navy under the direction of the Admiralty Minister (although the IJN had its own much smaller <i>Tokkeitai</i>), those of the executive police under the direction of the Interior Minister, and those of the judicial police under the direction of the Justice Minister.<br/><br/> A member of the corps was called a <i>Kempei</i>.
Nikolai Yezhov's time in charge is sometimes known as the 'Yezhovshchina' ('the Yezhov era'), a term coined during the de-Stalinization campaign of the 1950s. After presiding over mass arrests and executions during the Great Purge, Yezhov became a victim of it himself. He was arrested, confessed under torture to a range of anti-Soviet activity, and was executed in 1940.<br/><br/> By the beginning of World War II, his status within the Soviet Union became that of a political non-person. Among art historians, he has the nickname 'The Vanishing Commissar' because after his execution, his likeness was retouched out of an official press photo; he is among the best known examples of the Soviet press making someone who had fallen out of favor 'disappear'.
Felix Dzerzhinsky is best known for establishing and developing the Soviet secret police forces; serving as their director from 1917 to 1926. Later he was a member of the Soviet government heading several commissariats; while being the chief of the Soviet secret police.<br/><br/> The Cheka soon became notorious for mass summary executions; performed especially during the Red Terror and the Russian Civil War.
The Lubyanka was originally built in 1898 as the headquarters of the All-Russia Insurance Company.<br/><br/> Following the Bolshevik Revolution, the structure was seized by the government for the headquarters of the secret police, then called the Cheka, subsequently the NKVD.
Ken Domon (25 October 1909 – 15 September 1990) is one of the most renowned Japanese photographers of the 20th century. He is most celebrated as a photojournalist, though he may have been most prolific as a photographer of Buddhist temples and statuary.
Nikolai Yezhov's time in charge is sometimes known as the 'Yezhovshchina' ('the Yezhov era'), a term coined during the de-Stalinization campaign of the 1950s. After presiding over mass arrests and executions during the Great Purge, Yezhov became a victim of it himself. He was arrested, confessed under torture to a range of anti-Soviet activity, and was executed in 1940.<br/><br/> By the beginning of World War II, his status within the Soviet Union became that of a political non-person. Among art historians, he has the nickname 'The Vanishing Commissar' because after his execution, his likeness was retouched out of an official press photo; he is among the best known examples of the Soviet press making someone who had fallen out of favor 'disappear'.
Felix Dzerzhinsky is best known for establishing and developing the Soviet secret police forces; serving as their director from 1917 to 1926. Later he was a member of the Soviet government heading several commissariats; while being the chief of the Soviet secret police.<br/><br/> The Cheka soon became notorious for mass summary executions; performed especially during the Red Terror and the Russian Civil War.
Kristallnacht or 'Crystal Night', also referred to as the Night of Broken Glass, was a pogrom against Jews throughout Nazi Germany and Austria that took place on 9–10 November 1938, carried out by SA (Sturmabteilung or Brownshirts) paramilitary forces and German civilians.<br/><br/> German authorities looked on without intervening. The name Kristallnacht comes from the shards of broken glass that littered the streets after Jewish-owned stores, buildings, and synagogues had their windows smashed.
Julius Martov or L. Martov, real name Yuli Osipovich Zederbaum (November 24, 1873 – April 4, 1923) was born in Istanbul in 1873.<br/><br/> The son of Jewish middle class parents, he became the leader of the Mensheviks in early twentieth century Russia.
Vietnam: The Mandarin of the port of Haiphong with the director of police, 1883. (Colourization by Raúl Gil Sarmiento). French Indochina (French: Indochine française; Khmer: សហភាព​ឥណ្ឌូចិន, Vietnamese: Đông Dương thuộc Pháp, frequently abbreviated to Đông Pháp) was part of the French colonial empire in southeast Asia. A federation of the three Vietnamese regions, Tonkin (North), Annam (Central), and Cochinchina (South), as well as Cambodia, was formed in 1887.
Nikolai Yezhov's time in charge is sometimes known as the 'Yezhovshchina' ('the Yezhov era'), a term coined during the de-Stalinization campaign of the 1950s. After presiding over mass arrests and executions during the Great Purge, Yezhov became a victim of it himself. He was arrested, confessed under torture to a range of anti-Soviet activity, and was executed in 1940.<br/><br/> By the beginning of World War II, his status within the Soviet Union became that of a political non-person. Among art historians, he has the nickname 'The Vanishing Commissar' because after his execution, his likeness was retouched out of an official press photo; he is among the best known examples of the Soviet press making someone who had fallen out of favor 'disappear'.
Felix Dzerzhinsky is best known for establishing and developing the Soviet secret police forces; serving as their director from 1917 to 1926. Later he was a member of the Soviet government heading several commissariats; while being the chief of the Soviet secret police.<br/><br/> The Cheka soon became notorious for mass summary executions; performed especially during the Red Terror and the Russian Civil War.
The <i>Kempeitai</i> ('Military Police Corps') was the military police arm of the Imperial Japanese Army from 1881 to 1945. It was not a conventional military police, but more of a secret police, akin to Nazi Germany's Gestapo.<br/><br/> While it was institutionally part of the Imperial Japanese Army, it also discharged the functions of the military police for the Imperial Japanese Navy under the direction of the Admiralty Minister (although the IJN had its own much smaller <i>Tokkeitai</i>), those of the executive police under the direction of the Interior Minister, and those of the judicial police under the direction of the Justice Minister.<br/><br/> A member of the corps was called a <i>Kempei</i>.
In a clear case of 'divide and conquer' the British famously - infamously from a Chinese perspective - used Sikh policeman to control - and often brutalise - Chinese citizens of their Far Eastern colonial settlements. The result was that Sikhs became associated with aggression and violence in the Chinese world view.<br/><br/> This cartoon by 'H.H.' nicely sums up the colonialist and frankly racist colonial British values of the time.
The ‘jumbo’ is a three-wheeled taxi and is the common form of transportation in Laos' larger towns. They are modified motorbikes with two covered benches in the back that seat about six people quite comfortably.<br/><br/> Luang Prabang was formerly the capital of a kingdom of the same name. Until the communist takeover in 1975, it was the royal capital and seat of government of the Kingdom of Laos. The city is nowadays a UNESCO World Heritage Site.
The ‘jumbo’ is a three-wheeled taxi and is the common form of transportation in Laos' larger towns. They are modified motorbikes with two covered benches in the back that seat about six people quite comfortably.<br/><br/> Luang Prabang was formerly the capital of a kingdom of the same name. Until the communist takeover in 1975, it was the royal capital and seat of government of the Kingdom of Laos. The city is nowadays a UNESCO World Heritage Site.
French Indochina (French: Indochine française; Khmer: សហភាព​ឥណ្ឌូចិន, Vietnamese: Đông Dương thuộc Pháp, frequently abbreviated to Đông Pháp) was part of the French colonial empire in southeast Asia. A federation of the three Vietnamese regions, Tonkin (North), Annam (Central), and Cochinchina (South), as well as Cambodia, was formed in 1887.
Front row 2nd left to 2nd right: Sergeant Machray, Captain and Adjutant the Honourable M.C.A. Drummond, Sergeant Major Anderson, Corporal Findlay.<br/><br/> Before 28 March 2006, the Black Watch was an infantry regiment. The Black Watch (Royal Highland Regiment) from 1931 to 2006, and The Black Watch (Royal Highlanders) from 1881 to 1931. Part of the Scottish Division, it was the senior regiment of Highlanders.<br/><br/> Since 2006 The Black Watch, 3rd Battalion, Royal Regiment of Scotland (3 SCOTS) has been an infantry battalion of the Royal Regiment of Scotland.
Shortly after midnight on 31 January 1968, 19 Vietcong sappers from the elite C-10 Sapper Battalion gathered at a Vietcong safe house in a car repair shop at 59 Phan Thanh Gian Street to distribute weapons and conduct final preparations for the attack. At 02:47 hours, the Vietcong blew a small hole in the perimeter wall on Thong Nhut Boulevard and gained access to the embassy compound.<br/><br/> The Vietcong opened fire on the Chancery building with Type 56s and RPG-2s. Several RPGs penetrated the walls of the Chancery. By 09:00, the Embassy was declared secure. Of the 19 Vietcong fighters that attacked the building, 18 had been killed and one wounded fighter was captured.<br/><br/> While the Embassy attack (like much of the Tet Offensive) was tactically insignificant, it had a profound political and psychological impact. The United States had been fighting in Vietnam for over two-and-a-half years, 20,000 Americans had been killed and despite the presence of nearly 500,000 U.S. troops in Vietnam, the Vietcong had managed to penetrate the U.S. Embassy, sovereign U.S. territory and the symbol of American power.
The Gate of Supreme Harmony (pinyin: Tàihémén; Manchu: Amba hūwaliyambure duka), is the second major gate at the southern side of the Forbidden City.<br/><br/> The Forbidden City, built between 1406 and 1420, served for 500 years (until the end of the imperial era in 1911) as the seat of all power in China, the throne of the Son of Heaven and the private residence of all the Ming and Qing dynasty emperors. The complex consists of 980 buildings with 8,707 bays of rooms and covers 720,000 m2 (7,800,000 sq ft).
The Duanmen (Upright Gate) sits between Tiananmen (Gate of Heavenly Peace) and Wumen (Meridian Gate), the main entrance to the Forbidden City. The gate was built in 1420 during the Ming Dynasty (1368 - 1644).<br/><br/> The Forbidden City, built between 1406 and 1420, served for 500 years (until the end of the imperial era in 1911) as the seat of all power in China, the throne of the Son of Heaven and the private residence of all the Ming and Qing dynasty emperors. The complex consists of 980 buildings with 8,707 bays of rooms and covers 720,000 m2 (7,800,000 sq ft).
The Duanmen (Upright Gate) sits between Tiananmen (Gate of Heavenly Peace) and Wumen (Meridian Gate), the main entrance to the Forbidden City. The gate was built in 1420 during the Ming Dynasty (1368 - 1644).<br/><br/> The Forbidden City, built between 1406 and 1420, served for 500 years (until the end of the imperial era in 1911) as the seat of all power in China, the throne of the Son of Heaven and the private residence of all the Ming and Qing dynasty emperors. The complex consists of 980 buildings with 8,707 bays of rooms and covers 720,000 m2 (7,800,000 sq ft).
The Tonlé Sap (Large Fresh Water River or Great Lake) is a combined lake and river system of major importance to Cambodia.<br/><br/> The Tonlé Sap is the largest freshwater lake in South East Asia and is an ecological hot spot that was designated as a UNESCO biosphere in 1997.<br/><br/> The Tonlé Sap is unusual for two reasons: its flow changes direction twice a year, and the portion that forms the lake expands and shrinks dramatically with the seasons. From November to May, Cambodia's dry season, the Tonlé Sap drains into the Mekong River at Phnom Penh. However, when the year's heavy rains begin in June, the Tonlé Sap backs up to form an enormous lake.<br/><br/> The Tonlé Sap is home to many ethnic Vietnamese and Cham communities, living in floating villages around the lake.
The Spratlys Archipelago in the South China Sea (called by Vietnam the East Sea) is disputed in various degrees by China, Taiwan, Vietnam, Philippines, Malaysia and Brunei. The Paracels Islands are disputed between China and Vietnam, but have been controlled completely by China since 1974.<br/><br/> The Chinese claim is the most extensive and is generally indicated by a notional frontier termed by the Chinese the 'Nine Dotted Line' (nánhǎi jiǔduàn xiàn; literally 'Nine division lines of the South China Sea') and by the Vietnamese the 'Ox's Tongue Line' (Đường lưỡi bò).<br/><br/> The dispute is driven in part by the proven fishing reserves of the region, in part by unproven but supected oil reserves, and by competing national prides - especially between China (effectively backed by Taiwan) and Vietnam.
The British Indian Ocean Territory (BIOT) or Chagos Islands (formerly the Oil Islands) is an overseas territory of the United Kingdom situated in the Indian Ocean, halfway between Africa and Indonesia. The territory comprises a group of seven atolls comprising more than 60 individual islands, situated some 500 kilometres (310 mi) due south of the Maldives archipelago. The largest island is Diego Garcia (area 44 km squared), the site of a joint military facility of the United Kingdom and the United States. Following the eviction of the native population (Chagossians) in the 1960s, the only inhabitants are US and British military personnel and associated contractors, who collectively number around 4,000 (2004 figures).
The Great Kantō earthquake (関東大震災 Kantō daishinsai) struck the Kantō Plain on the Japanese main island of Honshū at 11:58 in the morning on Saturday, September 1, 1923. Varied accounts indicate the duration of the earthquake was between four and 10 minutes. The 2011 Tōhoku earthquake later surpassed that record, at magnitude 9.0.<br/><br/> The earthquake had a magnitude of 7.9 on the Moment magnitude scale (Mw), with its focus deep beneath Izu Ōshima Island in the Sagami Bay. The cause was a rupture of part of the convergent boundary where the Philippine Sea Plate is subducting beneath the Okhotsk Plate along the line of the Sagami Trough.<br/><br/> This earthquake devastated Tokyo, the port city of Yokohama, and the surrounding prefectures of Chiba, Kanagawa, and Shizuoka, and caused widespread damage throughout the Kantō region. The power was so great in Kamakura, over 60 km (37 mi) from the epicenter, it moved the Great Buddha statue, which weighs about 93 short tons (84,000 kg), almost two feet.<br/><br/> Estimated casualties totaled about 142,800 deaths, including about 40,000 who went missing and were presumed dead. The damage from this natural disaster was the greatest sustained by prewar Japan. In 1960, the government declared September 1, the anniversary of the quake, as an annual 'Disaster Prevention Day'.<br/><br/> According to the Japanese conclusive report, 105,385 deaths were confirmed in the 1923 quake.
International attention to Shanghai grew in the 19th century due to its economic and trade potential at the Yangtze River. During the First Opium War (1839–1842), British forces temporarily held the city. The war ended with the 1842 Treaty of Nanjing, opening Shanghai and other ports to international trade. In 1863, the British settlement, located to the south of Suzhou creek (Huangpu district), and the American settlement, to the north of Suzhou creek (Hongkou district), joined in order to form the International Settlement.<br/><br/>The French opted out of the Shanghai Municipal Council, and maintained its own French Concession. Citizens of many countries and all continents came to Shanghai to live and work during the ensuing decades; those who stayed for long periods called themselves 'Shanghailanders'. In the 1920s and 30s, some 20,000 so-called White Russians and Russian Jews fled the newly established Soviet Union and took up residence in Shanghai. By 1932, Shanghai had become the world's fifth largest city and home to 70,000 foreigners.
Singapore hosted a trading post of the British East India Company in 1819 with permission from the Sultanate of Johor. The British obtained sovereignty over the island in 1824 and Singapore became one of the British Straits Settlements in 1826. Occupied by the Japanese in World War II, Singapore declared independence, uniting with other former British territories to form Malaysia in 1963, although it was separated from Malaysia two years later. Since then it has had a massive increase in wealth, and is one of the Four Asian Tigers. Singapore is the world's fourth leading financial centre, and its port is one of the five busiest ports in the world.
...Its 'dreary wall... seemed to smell of urine and injustice'. (Graham Greene, The Quiet American, 1954).
The Korean War (25 June 1950 - armistice signed 27 July 1953) was a military conflict between the Republic of Korea, supported by the United Nations, and North Korea, supported by the People's Republic of China (PRC), with military material aid from the Soviet Union. The war was a result of the physical division of Korea by an agreement of the victorious Allies at the conclusion of the Pacific War at the end of World War II.<br/><br/>The Korean peninsula was ruled by Japan from 1910 until the end of World War II. Following the surrender of Japan in 1945, American administrators divided the peninsula along the 38th Parallel, with United States troops occupying the southern part and Soviet troops occupying the northern part. The failure to hold free elections throughout the Korean Peninsula in 1948 deepened the division between the two sides, and the North established a Communist government. The situation escalated into open warfare when North Korean forces invaded South Korea on 25 June 1950. It was the first significant armed conflict of the Cold War.<br/><br/>The United Nations, particularly the United States, came to the aid of South Korea in repelling the invasion. A rapid UN counter-offensive drove the North Koreans past the 38th Parallel and almost to the Yalu River, and the People's Republic of China (PRC) entered the war on the side of the North. The Chinese launched a counter-offensive that pushed the United Nations forces back across the 38th Parallel.<br/><br/>The Soviet Union materially aided the North Korean and Chinese armies. In 1953, the war ceased with an armistice that restored the border between the Koreas near the 38th Parallel and created the Korean Demilitarized Zone (DMZ), a 2.5-mile (4.0 km) wide buffer zone between the two Koreas. Minor outbreaks of fighting continue to the present day.
The Malayan Emergency was a guerrilla war fought between Commonwealth armed forces and the Malayan National Liberation Army (MNLA), the military arm of the Malayan Communist Party, from 1948 to 1960. The Malayan Emergency was the colonial government's term for the conflict. The MNLA termed it the Anti-British National Liberation War. Despite the communists' defeat in 1960, communist leader Chin Peng renewed the insurgency in 1967; it would last until 1989, and became known as the Communist Insurgency War. Although Australian and British armed forces had fully withdrawn from Malaysia years earlier, the insurgency still failed.
Leon Trotsky (Russian: Лев Дави́дович Тро́цкий; born Lev Davidovich Bronshtein (7 November 1879 – 21 August 1940) was a Russian Marxist revolutionary and theorist, Soviet politician, and the founder and first leader of the Red Army.<br/><br/> Trotsky was initially a supporter of the Menshevik Internationalists faction of the Russian Social Democratic Labour Party. He joined the Bolsheviks immediately prior to the 1917 October Revolution, and eventually became a leader within the Party. During the early days of the Soviet Union, he served first as People's Commissar for Foreign Affairs and later as the founder and commander of the Red Army as People's Commissar of Military and Naval Affairs. He was a major figure in the Bolshevik victory in the Russian Civil War (1918–23). He was also among the first members of the Politburo.<br/><br/> After leading a failed struggle of the Left Opposition against the policies and rise of Joseph Stalin in the 1920s and the increasing role of bureaucracy in the Soviet Union, Trotsky was successively removed from power in 1927, expelled from the Communist Party, and finally deported from the Soviet Union in 1929. As the head of the Fourth International, Trotsky continued in exile in Mexico to oppose the Stalinist bureaucracy in the Soviet Union.<br/><br/> An early advocate of Red Army intervention against European fascism, in the late 1930s, Trotsky opposed Stalin's non-aggression pact with Adolf Hitler. He was assassinated on Stalin's orders in Mexico, by Ramón Mercader, a Spanish-born Soviet agent in August 1940.
Pondicherry was the capital of the former French territories in India. Besides Pondi itself – acquired from a local ruler in 1674 – these included Chandernagore in Bengal (1690); Mahé in Kerala (1725); Yanam in Andhra Pradesh (1731); and Karaikal in Tamil Nadu (1739). Chandernagore was returned to India three years after independence, in 1951, and was absorbed into West Bengal. Returned to India in 1956, the remaining four territories were constituted as the Union Territory of Pondicherry in 1962.<br/><br/> Today Karaikal, Yanam and Mahé are all small seaside resort towns, known chiefly for their cheap beer made possible by Pondicherry's light alcohol taxes. Karaikal, on the Coromandel Coast 100 kilometres south of Pondicherry, is similar to rural Pondi – a prosperous, Tamil-speaking enclave renowned for the abundance of its rice harvests. Yanam, located on the coast of Andhra Pradesh more than 600 kilometres north of Madras, is a tiny, Telugu-speaking town on a branch of the Godavari River. Mahé, on the Malabar Coast of northern Kerala is a quaint, picturesque town, named for its founder, Count Mahé de La Bourdonnais.<br/><br/> In September 2006, the territory changed its official name from Pondicherry to the vernacular original, Puducherry, which means 'New village'.
Pondicherry was the capital of the former French territories in India. Besides Pondi itself – acquired from a local ruler in 1674 – these included Chandernagore in Bengal (1690); Mahé in Kerala (1725); Yanam in Andhra Pradesh (1731); and Karaikal in Tamil Nadu (1739). Chandernagore was returned to India three years after independence, in 1951, and was absorbed into West Bengal. Returned to India in 1956, the remaining four territories were constituted as the Union Territory of Pondicherry in 1962.<br/><br/> Today Karaikal, Yanam and Mahé are all small seaside resort towns, known chiefly for their cheap beer made possible by Pondicherry's light alcohol taxes. Karaikal, on the Coromandel Coast 100 kilometres south of Pondicherry, is similar to rural Pondi – a prosperous, Tamil-speaking enclave renowned for the abundance of its rice harvests. Yanam, located on the coast of Andhra Pradesh more than 600 kilometres north of Madras, is a tiny, Telugu-speaking town on a branch of the Godavari River. Mahé, on the Malabar Coast of northern Kerala is a quaint, picturesque town, named for its founder, Count Mahé de La Bourdonnais.<br/><br/> In September 2006, the territory changed its official name from Pondicherry to the vernacular original, Puducherry, which means 'New village'.
Pondicherry was the capital of the former French territories in India. Besides Pondi itself – acquired from a local ruler in 1674 – these included Chandernagore in Bengal (1690); Mahé in Kerala (1725); Yanam in Andhra Pradesh (1731); and Karaikal in Tamil Nadu (1739). Chandernagore was returned to India three years after independence, in 1951, and was absorbed into West Bengal. Returned to India in 1956, the remaining four territories were constituted as the Union Territory of Pondicherry in 1962.<br/><br/> Today Karaikal, Yanam and Mahé are all small seaside resort towns, known chiefly for their cheap beer made possible by Pondicherry's light alcohol taxes. Karaikal, on the Coromandel Coast 100 kilometres south of Pondicherry, is similar to rural Pondi – a prosperous, Tamil-speaking enclave renowned for the abundance of its rice harvests. Yanam, located on the coast of Andhra Pradesh more than 600 kilometres north of Madras, is a tiny, Telugu-speaking town on a branch of the Godavari River. Mahé, on the Malabar Coast of northern Kerala is a quaint, picturesque town, named for its founder, Count Mahé de La Bourdonnais.<br/><br/> In September 2006, the territory changed its official name from Pondicherry to the vernacular original, Puducherry, which means 'New village'.
Kang Sheng (c.1898–December 16, 1975), Communist Party of China official, oversaw the work of the People's Republic of China's security and intelligence apparatus at the height of the Cultural Revolution in the late 1960s. He was a close associate of Mao Zedong and remained at or near the pinnacle of power for decades. After his death, Kang Sheng was accused of sharing responsibility with the Gang of Four for the excesses of the Cultural Revolution and expelled posthumously from the Communist Party in 1980.
Kang Sheng (c.1898–December 16, 1975), Communist Party of China official, oversaw the work of the People's Republic of China's security and intelligence apparatus at the height of the Cultural Revolution in the late 1960s. He was a close associate of Mao Zedong and remained at or near the pinnacle of power for decades. After his death, Kang Sheng was accused of sharing responsibility with the Gang of Four for the excesses of the Cultural Revolution and expelled posthumously from the Communist Party in 1980.
The Lubyanka is the popular name for the headquarters of the KGB and affiliated prison on Lubyanka Square in Moscow, Russia. It is a large Neo-Baroque building with a facade of yellow brick designed by Alexander V. Ivanov in 1897 and augmented by Aleksey Shchusev from 1940 to 1947.
Asia's smallest and least-known nation, the Republic of Maldives, lies scattered from north to south across a 750-kilometre sweep of the Indian Ocean 500 kilometres south-west of Sri Lanka. More than 1000 islands, together with innumerable banks and reefs, are grouped in a chain of nineteen atolls which extends from a point due west of Colombo to just south of the equator.<br/><br/> The atolls, formed of great rings of coral based on the submarine Laccadive-Chagos ridge, vary greatly in size. Some are only a few kilometres square, but in the far south the great atoll of Suvadiva is sixty-five kilometres across, and has a central lagoon of more than 2000 square kilometres. The northern and central atolls are separated from each other by comparatively narrow channels of deep water, but in the south Suvadiva is cut off by the eighty-kilometre-wide One-and-a-half-Degree Channel. Addu Atoll is still more isolated, being separated from the atoll of Suvadiva by the seventy-kilometre-wide Equatorial Channel.