Leninism is the political theory for the organisation of a revolutionary vanguard party and the achievement of a dictatorship of the proletariat as political prelude to the establishment of socialism. Developed by and named for the Russian revolutionary Vladimir Lenin, Leninism comprises socialist political and economic theories, developed from Marxism and Lenin's interpretations of Marxist theories, for practical application to the socio-political conditions of the Russian Empire of the early 20th century.
The Russian Civil War was a multi-party war in the former Russian Empire immediately after the two Russian Revolutions of 1917, as many factions vied to determine Russia's political future. The two largest combatant groups were the Red Army, fighting for the Bolshevik form of socialism led by Vladimir Lenin, and the loosely allied forces known as the White Army, which included diverse interests favoring political monarchism, economic capitalism and alternative forms of socialism, each with democratic and antidemocratic variants. In addition, rival militant socialists and nonideological Green armies fought against both the Bolsheviks and the Whites. Eight foreign nations intervened against the Red Army, notably the former Allied military forces from the World War and the pro-German armies. The Red Army eventually defeated the White Armed Forces of South Russia in Ukraine and the army led by Admiral Aleksandr Kolchak to the east in Siberia in 1919. The remains of the White forces commanded by Pyotr Nikolayevich Wrangel were beaten in Crimea and evacuated in late 1920. Lesser battles of the war continued on the periphery for two more years, and minor skirmishes with the remnants of the White forces in the Far East continued well into 1923. The war ended in 1923 in the sense that Bolshevik communist control of the newly formed Soviet Union was now assured, although armed national resistance in Central Asia was not completely crushed until 1934. There were an estimated 7,000,000–12,000,000 casualties during the war, mostly civilians. The Russian Civil War has been described by some as the greatest national catastrophe that Europe had yet seen.
General Secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union was an office of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union (CPSU) that by the late 1920s had evolved into the most powerful of the Central Committee's various secretaries. With a few exceptions, from 1929 until the union's dissolution the holder of the office was the de facto leader of the Soviet Union, because the post controlled both the CPSU and the Soviet government. Joseph Stalin elevated the office to overall command of the Communist Party and by extension the whole Soviet Union. Nikita Khrushchev renamed the post First Secretary in 1953; the change was reverted in 1966.
The White movement and its military arm the White Army, also known as the White Guard, the White Guardsmen or simply the Whites, was a loose confederation of anti-communist forces that fought the Communist Bolsheviks, also known as the Reds, in the Russian Civil War (1917–1922/1923) and to a lesser extent continued operating as militarized associations insurrectionists both outside and within Russian borders in Siberia until roughly World War II (1939–1945).
Novy Mir is a Russian-language monthly literary magazine.
Private letter rulings (PLRs), in the United States, are written decisions by the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) in response to taxpayer requests for guidance. A letter ruling, or private letter ruling, is "a written statement issued to a taxpayer by an Associate Chief Counsel Office of the Office of Chief Counsel or by the Tax Exempt and Government Entities Division that interprets and applies the tax laws to a specific set of facts."
Vadim Zakharovich Rogovin was a Russian Marxist (Trotskyist) historian and sociologist, Ph.D. in philosophy, Leading Researcher at the Institute of Sociology of the Russian Academy of Sciences, and the author of Was There An Alternative?, the 7-volume study of Stalin era between 1923 and 1940, with an emphasis on the Trotskyist opposition.
Bill Lohrman was a pitcher in Major League Baseball. He pitched in 198 games from 1934 to 1944. Bill played for the Giants, Dodgers, Cardinals, Phillies, and Reds. Bill was born and raised Brooklyn and went to live in New Paltz, New York following his baseball career.
The 1953 Chicago White Sox season was the team's 53rd season in the major leagues, and its 54th season overall. They finished with a record 89–65, good enough for third place in the American League, 11.5 games behind the first place New York Yankees.
The Special Transcaucasian Committee was established on March 9, 1917, with Member of the State Duma V. A. Kharlamov as Chairman, to replace the Imperial Viceroy Grand Duke Nikolai Nikolaevich and with special instruction to establish civil administrations in areas occupied in the course of the war on the Caucasian front by the Russian Provisional Government in the Transcaucasia as the highest organ of civil administrative body. Commissars were appointed for the Terek and Kuban oblasts, and these as well as the Committee were to carry on relations with central government institutions through a Commissar for Caucasian Affairs in Petrograd attached to the Provisional Government.
M. A. Rogovin was a Russian civil engineer responsible for construction of many fortresses in Russia: Libau, Brest Fortress, Kovno among others.
The New York Times called Rogovin "a famous Russian engineer who built Libau and many fortresses".
The Moscow Trials were a series of show trials held in the Soviet Union at the instigation of Joseph Stalin between 1936 and 1938 against so-called Trotskyists and members of Right Opposition of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union. There were three Moscow Trials: the Case of the Trotskyite-Zinovievite Terrorist Center, the Case of the Anti-Soviet Trotskyist Center, and the Case of the Anti-Soviet "Bloc of Rights and Trotskyites".
Lazar Abramovich Shatskin (Лазарь Абрамович Шацкин, was Soviet and international Communist functionary, one of the founders of Komsomol.
Old Bolshevik, also Old Bolshevik Guard or Old Party Guard, became an unofficial designation for those who were members of the Bolshevik party before the Russian Revolution of 1917.
The Central Committee (CC) composition was elected at the 17th Congress, and sat from 10 February 1934 until 22 March 1939. Its 1st Plenary Session renewed the composition of the Politburo, Secretariat and the Orgburo of the All-Union Communist Party (Bolsheviks). The 17th Congress was labelled the "Congress of Victors" to mark the success of the first five-year plan and the collectivization of agriculture. The CC 1st Plenary Session elected Joseph Stalin General Secretary of the Central Committee, and Lazar Kaganovich continued to serve as Stalin's deputy, an informal post referred to by Sovietologists as Second Secretary, and was empowered to manage party business and sign Politburo resolutions when Stalin was away from Moscow.
Harvey Wang is an American photographer based in New York City. He has published several books of photography. He is known for his portraits and short films.
Jonathan Frankel was a historian and writer. He was a lecturer at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem from 1964 to 1985, and a professor between 1985 and 2004.
