text:
Andrei Gromyko

Andrei Andreyevich Gromyko (Андрей Андреевич Громыко; Андрэй Андрэевіч Грамыка; 18 July 1909 – 2 July 1989) was a Soviet politician and diplomat during the Cold War. He served as Minister of Foreign Affairs (1957–1985) and as Chairman of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet (1985–1988). Gromyko was responsible for many top decisions on Soviet foreign policy until he retired in 1988. In the 1940s Western pundits called him Mr Nyet ("Mr No") or "Grim Grom", because of his frequent use of the Soviet veto in the United Nations Security Council.

Gromyko's political career started in 1939 in the People's Commissariat for Foreign Affairs (renamed Ministry of Foreign Affairs in 1946). He became the Soviet ambassador to the United States in 1943, leaving that position in 1946 to become the Soviet Permanent Representative to the United Nations in New York. Upon his return to Moscow he became a Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs and later First Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs. He went on to become the Soviet ambassador to the United Kingdom in 1952.

As Foreign Minister of the Soviet Union, Gromyko was directly involved in deliberations with the Americans during the Cuban Missile Crisis and helped broker a peace treaty ending the 1965 Indo-Pakistani War. Under the leadership of Leonid Brezhnev, he played a central role in the establishment of détente with the United States by negotiating the ABM Treaty, the Partial Nuclear Test Ban Treaty and the SALT I & II among others. When Brezhnev suffered a stroke in 1975 impairing his ability to govern, Gromyko effectively dictated policymaking alongside KGB Chairman Yuri Andropov, Defense Minister Andrei Grechko and Grechko's successor, Marshal Dmitry Ustinov. Even after Brezhnev's death, Gromyko's rigid conservatism and distrust of the West continued to dominate the Soviet Union's foreign policy until Mikhail Gorbachev's rise to power in 1985.

Following Gorbachev's election as General Secretary, Gromyko lost his office as foreign minister and was appointed to the largely ceremonial post of Chairman of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR. Subsequently, he retired from political life in 1988, and died the following year in Moscow.

Background and youth
Gromyko was born to a poor "semi-peasant, semi-worker" Belarusian family in the Belarusian village of Staryye Gromyki, near Gomel, on 18 July 1909. Gromyko's father, Andrei Matveyevich, worked as a seasonal worker in a local factory. Andrei Matveyevich was not a very educated man, having only attended four years of school, but knew how to read and write. He had fought in the Russo-Japanese War of 1904–1905. Gromyko's mother, Olga Yevgenyevna, came from a poor peasant family in the neighbouring city of Zhelezniki. She attended school only for a short period of time as, when her father died, she left to help her mother with the harvest.

Gromyko grew up near the district town of Vetka where most of the inhabitants were devoted Old Believers in the Russian Orthodox Church. Gromyko's own village was also predominantly religious, but Gromyko started doubting the supernatural at a very early age. His first dialog on the subject was with his grandmother Marfa, who answered his inquiry about God with "Wait until you get older. Then you will understand all this much better". According to Gromyko, "Other adults said basically the same thing" when talking about religion. Gromyko's neighbour at the time, Mikhail Sjeljutov, was a freethinker and introduced Gromyko to new non-religious ideas and told Gromyko that scientists were beginning to doubt the existence of God. From the age of nine, after the Bolshevik revolution, Gromyko started reading atheist propaganda in flyers and pamphlets. At the age of thirteen Gromyko became a member of the Komsomol and held anti-religious speeches in the village with his friends as well as promoting Communist values.

The news that Germany had attacked the Russian Empire in August 1914 came without warning to the local population. This was the first time, as Gromyko notes, that he felt "love for his country". His father, Andrei Matveyevich, was again conscripted into the Imperial Russian Army and served for three years on the southwestern front, under the leadership of General Aleksei Brusilov. Andrei Matveyevich returned home on the eve of the 1917 October Revolution in Russia.

Gromyko was elected First Secretary of the local Komsomol chapter at the beginning of 1923. Following Vladimir Lenin's death in 1924, the villagers asked Gromyko what would happen in the leader's absence. Gromyko remembered a communist slogan from the heyday of the October Revolution: "The revolution was carried through by Lenin and his helpers." He then told the villagers that Lenin was dead but "his aides, the Party, still lived on."

Education and party membership
When he was young, Gromyko's mother Olga told him that he should leave his home town to become an educated man. Gromyko followed his mother's advice and, after finishing seven years of primary school and vocational education in Gomel, he moved to Borisov to attend technical school. Gromyko became a member of the All-Union Communist Party Bolsheviks in 1931, something he had dreamed of since he learned about the "difference between a poor farmer and a landowner, a worker and a capitalist". Gromyko was voted in as secretary of his party cell at his first party conference and used most of his weekends doing volunteer work. Gromyko received a very small stipend to live on, but still had a strong nostalgia for the days when he worked as a volunteer. It was about this time that Gromyko met his future wife, Lydia Grinevich. Grinevich was the daughter of a Belarusian peasant family and came from Kamenki, a small village to the west of Minsk. She and Gromyko had two children, Anatoly and Emiliya.

After studying in Borisov for two years Gromyko was appointed principal of a secondary school in Dzyarzhynsk, where he taught, supervised the school, and continued his studies. One day, a representative from the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Byelorussia offered him an opportunity to do post-graduate work in Minsk. Gromyko traveled to Minsk for an interview with the head of the university, I.M. Borisevich, who explained that a new post-graduate program had been formed for training in economics; Gromyko's record in education and social work made him a desirable candidate. Gromyko advised Borisevich that he would have difficulty living on a meager student stipend. Borisevich assured him that on finishing the program, his salary would be at the party's top pay grade – "a decent living wage". Gromyko accepted the offer, moving his family to Minsk in 1933. Gromyko and the other post-graduates were invited to an anniversary reception at which, as recounted in Gromyko's Memoirs:

"We were amazed to find ourselves treated as equals and placed at their table to enjoy what for us was a sumptuous feast. We realised then that not for nothing did the Soviet state treat its scientists well: evidently science and those who worked in it were highly regarded by the state."

After that day of pleasantry, Gromyko for the first time in his life wanted to enter higher education, but without warning, Gromyko and his family were moved in 1934 to Moscow, settling in the northeastern Alexeyevsky District. In 1936, after another three years of studying economics, Gromyko became a researcher and lecturer at the Soviet Academy of Sciences. His area of expertise was the US economy, and he published several books on the subject. Gromyko assumed his new job would be a permanent one, but in 1939 he was called upon by a Central Committee Commission which selected new personnel to work in diplomacy. (The Great Purge of 1938 opened many positions in the diplomatic corps.) Gromyko recognised such familiar faces as Vyacheslav Molotov and Georgy Malenkov. A couple of days later he was transferred from the Academy of Sciences to the diplomatic service.

Ambassador and World War II
In early 1939, Gromyko started working for the People's Commissariat for Foreign Affairs in Moscow. He became the Head of the Department of Americas, and because of his position Gromyko met with United States ambassador to the Soviet Union Lawrence Steinhardt. Gromyko believed Steinhardt to be "totally uninterested in creating good relations between the US and the USSR" and that Steinhardt's predecessor Joseph Davies was more "colourful" and seemed "genuinely interested" in improving the relations between the two countries. Davies received the Order of Lenin for his work in trying to improve diplomatic relations between the US and the USSR. After heading the Americas department for 6 months, Gromyko was called upon by Joseph Stalin. Stalin started the conversation by telling Gromyko that he would be sent to the Soviet embassy in the United States to become second-in-command. "The Soviet Union," Stalin said, "should maintain reasonable relations with such a powerful country like the United States, especially in light of the growing fascist threat". Vyacheslav Molotov contributed with some minor modifications but mostly agreed with what Stalin had said. "How are your English skills improving?," Stalin asked; "Comrade Gromyko, you should pay a visit or two to an American church and listen to their sermons. Priests usually speak correct English with good accents. Do you know that the Russian revolutionaries, when they were abroad, always followed this practice to improve their skills in foreign languages?" Gromyko was quite amazed about what Stalin had just told him but he never visited an American church.

Gromyko had never been abroad before and, to get to the United States, he had to travel via airplane through Romania, Bulgaria and Yugoslavia to Genoa, Italy, where he boarded a ship to the United States. He later wrote in his Memoirs that New York City was a good example on how humans, by the "means of wealth and technology are able to create something that is totally alien to our nature". He further noticed the New York working districts which, in his own opinion, were proof of the inhumanity of capitalism and of the system's greed. Gromyko met and consulted with most of the senior officers of the United States government during his first days and succeeded Maxim Litvinov as ambassador to the United States in 1943. In his Memoirs Gromyko wrote fondly of President Franklin D. Roosevelt even though he believed him to be a representative of the bourgeoisie class. During his time as ambassador, Gromyko met prominent personalities such as British actor Charlie Chaplin, and British economist John Maynard Keynes.

Gromyko was a Soviet delegate to the Tehran, Dumbarton Oaks, Yalta and Potsdam conferences. In 1943, the same year as the Tehran Conference, the USSR established diplomatic relations with Cuba and Gromyko was appointed the Soviet ambassador to Havana. Gromyko claimed that the accusations brought against Roosevelt by American right-wingers, that he was a socialist sympathizer, were absurd. While he started out as a member delegate Gromyko later became the head of the Soviet delegation to the San Francisco conference after Molotov's departure. When he later returned to Moscow to celebrate the Soviet victory in the Great Patriotic War, Stalin commended him saying a good diplomat was "worth two or three armies at the front".

United Nations
Gromyko was appointed Permanent Representative of the Soviet Union to the United Nations (UN) in April 1946. The USSR supported the election of the first Secretary-General of the United Nations, Trygve Lie, a former Norwegian Minister of Foreign Affairs. However, in the opinion of Gromyko, Lie became an active supporter of the "expansionist behaviour" of the United States and its "American aggressionist" policy. Because of this political stance, Gromyko believed Lie to be a poor Secretary-General. Trygve's successor, Swede Dag Hammarskjöld also promoted what Gromyko claimed as "anti-Soviet policies". U Thant, the third Secretary-General, once told Gromyko that it was "close to impossible" to have an "objective opinion of the USSR" in the Secretariat of the United Nations because the majority of Secretariat members were of American nationality, or "supporters of the United States".

Gromyko often used the Soviet veto power in the early days of the United Nations. So familiar was a Soviet veto in the early days of the UN that Gromyko became known as Mr Nyet, literally meaning "Mr No". During the first 10 years of the UN, the Soviet Union used its veto 79 times. In the same period, the Republic of China used the veto once, France twice and the others not at all. On 14 May 1947, Gromyko advocated the one-state solution to the Israeli–Palestinian conflict, and the two-state solution as the second best option in the case that "relations between the Jewish and Arab populations of Palestine ... proved to be so bad that it would be impossible to reconcile them".

Soviet ambassador to the United Kingdom
Gromyko was appointed Soviet ambassador to the United Kingdom at a June 1952 meeting with Joseph Stalin in the Kremlin. Stalin paced back and forth as normal, telling Gromyko about the importance of his new office, and saying "The United Kingdom now has the opportunity to play a greater role in international politics. But it is not clear in which direction the British government with their great diplomatic experience will steer their efforts [...] This is why we need people who understand their way of thinking". Gromyko met with Winston Churchill in 1952 not to talk about current politics but nostalgically about World War II. Gromyko met Churchill again in 1953 to talk about their experiences during World War II before returning to Russia when he was appointed Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs.

Foreign Minister of the Soviet Union
During his initial days as Minister of Foreign Affairs, Andrei Gromyko devoted most of his time battling the International Department (ID) of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union under Boris Ponomarev. Ponomarev advocated an expanded role for the ID in Soviet foreign relations but Gromyko flatly refused. A top Soviet official, Valentin Falin, said the ID "interfered in the activities" of Gromyko and his ministry countless times. Gromyko disliked both Ponomarev and the power sharing between the ID and the foreign ministry. However, even in the midst of such political infighting, Gromyko presided over many key junctures in the Soviet Union's diplomacy throughout his tenure as Foreign Minister.

One of his first tests as his country's chief diplomat came in 1958 when he addressed Mao Zedong's request for the Soviet Union to back his planned war with the Republic of China. During their discussions, Mao flabbergasted Gromyko by telling him that he was willing to sacrifice the lives of "300 million people" to bring about the Republic of China's annexation. Gromyko affirmed to Mao that his proposal would never get the approval of the Soviet leadership. Upon learning of this discussion, Moscow terminated the Soviet-Chinese nuclear program along with various industrialization projects in the People's Republic of China.

Years later during the Cuban Missile Crisis, Gromyko met U.S. President John F. Kennedy while acting under instructions from the current Soviet leader, Nikita Khrushchev. In his Memoirs, Gromyko wrote that Kennedy seemed "out of touch" when he first met him, and was more "ideologically driven" than "practical". In a 1988 interview, he further described Kennedy as nervous and prone to making contradictory statements involving American intentions towards Cuba.

Gromyko, in addition to John F. Kennedy, held important political discussions with Dean Rusk, a former United States Secretary of State, in regards to the Cuban Missile Crisis. He defended his state's actions, stating that the Soviet Union had every right to be present in Cuba, especially considering the fact that the United States had established their own missiles in Turkey. To Gromyko it seemed ironic the Soviet Union was blamed for their presence in Cuba, yet America had established countless of foreign military bases worldwide. After several negotiations, Gromyko mentioned: "By Rusk's behavior it was possible to observe how painfully the American leaders are suffering the fact that the Soviet Union decisively has stood on the side of Cuba", showing Rusk's "weak character".

Later, under the leadership of Leonid Brezhnev, Gromyko played a key role in the establishment of détente, a new phase of Soviet–American relations characterized by a significant reduction of tensions which lasted until 1979. In furtherance of this new arrangement, he oversaw the signing of the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons on 1 July 1968, the ABM and SALT I treaties in 1972, and the Agreement on the Prevention of Nuclear War in 1973. During his 28 years as Minister of Foreign Affairs Gromyko supported the policy of disarmament, stating in his Memoirs that "Disarmament is the ideal of Socialism".

Throughout his career, Gromyko explicitly promoted the idea that no important international agreement could be reached without the Soviet Union's involvement. Towards this end, one accomplishment he took particular pride in was the signing of the Partial Nuclear Test Ban Treaty whose negotiation could be traced back to 1958. Additionally, in 1966, Gromyko and Alexei Kosygin persuaded both Pakistan and India to sign the Tashkent Declaration, a peace treaty in the aftermath of the Indo-Pakistan war of 1965. Later in the same year, he engaged in a dialogue with Pope Paul VI, as part of the pontiff's ostpolitik that resulted in greater openness for the Roman Catholic Church in Eastern Europe despite heavy persecution of Christians in the Soviet Union itself.

In 1973, Gromyko was promoted to a full voting member of the Politburo, the Soviet Union's highest decision-making body. According to Christian Schmidt-Häuer, upon Gromyko reaching the peak of his power and influence, his approach to diplomacy began to suffer from the same qualities that underpinned his early career -his "exceptional memory and confidence in his experience" now made him inflexible, unimaginative and "devoid of a long-term vision" for the USSR. By the time Yuri Andropov and Konstantin Chernenko rose to the Soviet leadership, Gromyko frequently found himself advocating a harder line than his superiors.

When Brezhnev's ability to govern was impaired following a stroke in 1975, Gromyko effectively dominated Soviet policymaking alongside KGB Chairman Yuri Andropov, Defense Minister Andrei Grechko, and Grechko's successor, Marshal Dmitry Ustinov, for the rest of Brezhnev's rule. After Brezhnev's death in 1982, Andropov was voted in as General Secretary by the Politburo. Immediately after his appointment, Andropov asked Gromyko if he wanted to take over Brezhnev's old office of the Chairman of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet. However, Gromyko turned down Andropov's offer, believing Andropov would eventually take the office for himself.

Ever since being appointed Foreign Minister in February 1957, Gromyko never challenged the authority of those chosen to lead the Soviet Union by the Central Committee. However, this changed when the ailing Konstantin Chernenko rose to become the country's de jure ruler. Unimpressed by the new leader's feeble grasp of foreign relations and weak standing in the Politburo, Gromyko aggressively asserted control over Soviet diplomacy to the point of regularly interrupting and contradicting Chernenko in front of other world leaders. Thus, despite Chernenko's interest in reviving détente, the longtime Foreign Minister's distrust of "the West" meant there was no attempt to return to such a policy.

After Chernenko's death in 1985, Gromyko nominated Mikhail Gorbachev for the General Secretary on 11 March 1985. In supporting Gorbachev, Gromyko knew that the influence he carried would be strong. Upon being elected, Gorbachev relieved Gromyko as foreign minister and replaced him with Eduard Shevardnadze. Subsequently, he was appointed to the largely honorary position of Chairman of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet.

Head of state, retirement and death
Gromyko held the office of the Chairman of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet, literally head of state, which was largely ceremonial, and his influence in ruling circles diminished. A number of First World journalists believed Gromyko was uncomfortable with many of Gorbachev's reforms, however, in his Memoirs Gromyko wrote fondly of Gorbachev and the policy of perestroika. Gromyko believed that perestroika was about working for the construction of a socialist society and saw glasnost and perestroika as an attempt at making the USSR more democratic.

During a party conference in July 1988, Vladimir Melnikov called for Gromyko's resignation. Melnikov blamed Brezhnev for the economic and political stagnation that had hit the Soviet Union, seeing that Gromyko, as a prominent member of the Brezhnev leadership, was one of the men who had led the USSR into the crisis. Gromyko was promptly defended as "a man respected by the people" in a note by an anonymous delegate. After discussing it with his wife Gromyko decided to leave Soviet politics for good. Gromyko recounts in his Memoirs that before he made it official he told Gorbachev that he wished to resign. The following day, 1 October 1988, Gromyko sat beside Gorbachev, Yegor Ligachev and Nikolai Ryzhkov in the Supreme Soviet to make his resignation official:

"Such moments in life are just as memorable as when one is appointed to prominent positions. When my comrades took farewell to me, I was equally moved as I had ever been when I was given an important office. What I thought most about was that I had finished my duties towards the people, the Party and the state. This memory is very precious to me."

Gorbachev succeeded Gromyko in office as Chairman of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet. After his resignation Gorbachev praised Gromyko for his half-century of service to USSR. Critics, such as Alexander Belonogov, the Permanent Representative of the Soviet Union to the United Nations, claimed Gromyko's foreign policy was permeated with "a spirit of intolerance and confrontation".

After retiring from active politics in 1989 Gromyko started working on his memoirs. Gromyko died on 2 July 1989, just 16 days before what would have been his 80th birthday, after being hospitalised for a vascular problem that was not further identified. His death was followed by a minute of silence at the Congress of People's Deputies to commemorate him. The Telegraph Agency of the Soviet Union (TASS), the central news organ in the USSR, called him one of the country's most "prominent leaders". President of the United States George H. W. Bush sent his condolences to Gromyko's son, Anatoly. Gromyko was offered a grave in the Kremlin Wall Necropolis, but at the request of his family he was not buried near the Moscow Kremlin Wall but instead at the Novodevichy Cemetery.

Personal life
Gromyko met his wife, Lydia (1911–2004) in Minsk where they were both studying agriculture at the Minsk Institute of Agricultural Science. They married in 1931. They had two children: a son, Anatoly, and a daughter, Emilia. Anatoly (1932–2017) served as a diplomat and was an academic.

Legacy
Having been a person of considerable stature during his life, Gromyko held an unusual combination of personal characteristics. Some were impressed by his diplomatic skills, while others called Gromyko mundane and boring. An article written in 1981 in The Times said, "He is one of the most active and efficient members of the Soviet leadership. A man with an excellent memory, a keen intellect and extraordinary endurance [...] Maybe Andrey is the most informed Minister for Foreign affairs in the world". Gromyko's dour demeanor was shown clearly during his first term in Washington and echoed throughout his tenure as Soviet foreign minister. Ambassador Charles W. Yost, who worked with Gromyko at the Dumbarton Oaks Conference, the UN founding conference, and at the United Nations, recalled that the "humorless" Soviet ambassador "looked as though he was sucking a lemon." There is a story that Gromyko was leaving a Washington hotel one morning and was asked by a reporter; "Minister Gromyko, did you enjoy your breakfast today?" His response was "Perhaps."

During his twenty-eight years as minister of foreign affairs Gromyko became renowned by his peers for being consumed by his work. Henry Kissinger once said "If you can face Gromyko for one hour and survive, then you can begin to call yourself a diplomat". Gromyko's work influenced Soviet and Russian ambassadors such as Anatoly Dobrynin. Historians Gregory Elliot and Moshe Lewin described Gromyko's main characteristic as his "complete identification with the interest of the state and his faithful service to it", helping to explain his so-called "boring" personality and the mastery of his own ego. West German politician Egon Bahr, when commenting on Gromyko's memoirs, said;

"He has concealed a veritable treasure-trove from future generations and taken to the grave with him an inestimable knowledge of international connection between the historical events and major figures of his time, which only he could offer. What a pity that this very man proved incapable to the very end of evoking his experience. As a faithful servant of the state, he believed that he should restrict himself to a sober, concise presentation of the bare essentials."

On 18 July 2009, the Republic Belarus ruled by Alexander Lukashenko marked the 100th anniversary of Gromyko's birth with nationwide celebrations. In the city of his birth many people laid flowers in front of his bust. A ceremony was held attended by his son and daughter, Anatoly and Emiliya. Several exhibitions were opened and dedicated to his honour and a school and a street in Gomel were renamed in honour of him.

Decorations and awards

 * Soviet Union:
 * Sickle_and_Hammer.jpgSickle_and_Hammer.jpg Hero of Socialist Labor, twice (1969, 1979)
 * Order of Lenin ribbon bar.png Order of Lenin, seven times (1944, 1945, 1959, 1966, 1969, 1979, 1984)
 * POL Order Wojny Ojczyźnianej 1kl BAR.svg Order of the Patriotic War, 1st class (1985)
 * Orderredbannerlabor_rib.png	Order of the Red Banner of Labour (1948)
 * SU_Order_of_the_Badge_of_Honour_ribbon.svg	Order of the Badge of Honour (1954)
 * 100_lenin_rib.png Jubilee Medal "In Commemoration of the 100th Anniversary of the Birth of Vladimir Ilyich Lenin" (1969)
 * 30_years_of_victory_rib.png Jubilee Medal "Thirty Years of Victory in the Great Patriotic War 1941–1945" (1975)
 * 40_years_of_victory_rib.png Jubilee Medal "Forty Years of Victory in the Great Patriotic War 1941–1945" (1985)
 * RibbonLabourDuringWar.png Medal "For Valiant Labour in the Great Patriotic War 1941–1945" (1945)
 * VeteranLaborRibbon.png Medal "Veteran of Labour" (1974)
 * 70_years_saf_rib.png Jubilee Medal "70 Years of the Armed Forces of the USSR" (1988)
 * 800thMoscowRibbon.png Medal "In Commemoration of the 800th Anniversary of Moscow" (1947)
 * Medal_Lenin_Prize.png Lenin Prize (1982)
 * Medal_State_Prize_Soviet_Union.png USSR State Prize (1984)
 * Other countries:
 * Solnce_svobody_rib.png Order of the Sun of Freedom (Afghanistan)
 * Пластина на орден „Георги Димитров“.gif Order of Georgi Dimitrov (Bulgaria)
 * Ribbon_jose_marti.png Order of José Martí (Cuba)
 * Cs2okg.png Order of Klement Gottwald (Czechoslovakia)
 * Hu3ofl0.png Order of the Flag of the Republic of Hungary (Hungary)
 * Noribbon.svg Order of Peace and Friendship (Hungary)
 * PER_Order_of_the_Sun_of_Peru_-_Grand_Cross_BAR.png Grand Cross of Order of the Sun of Peru (Peru)
 * POL_Order_Zaslugi_PRL_kl1_BAR.png Order of Merit of the Polish People's Republic, 1st class (Poland)

title: Andrei Gromyko


text:
Congress Poland

Congress Poland or Congress Kingdom of Poland, formally known as the Kingdom of Poland, was a polity created in 1815 by the Congress of Vienna as a semi-autonomous Polish state, a successor to Napoleon's Duchy of Warsaw. It was established when the French ceded a part of Polish territory to the Russian Empire following France's defeat in the Napoleonic Wars. In 1915, during World War I, it was replaced by the German-controlled nominal Regency Kingdom until Poland regained independence in 1918.

Following the partitions of Poland at the end of the 18th century, Poland ceased to exist as an independent nation for 123 years. The territory, with its native population, was split among the Habsburg monarchy, the Kingdom of Prussia, and the Russian Empire. After 1804, an equivalent to Congress Poland within the Austrian Empire was the Kingdom of Galicia and Lodomeria, also commonly referred to as "Austrian Poland". The area incorporated into Prussia initially also held autonomy as the Grand Duchy of Posen outside of German Confederation, but later was demoted to merely a Prussian province (the Province of Posen), and was subsequently annexed in 1866 into the North German Confederation, the predecessor of the German Empire.

The Congress Kingdom of Poland was theoretically granted considerable political autonomy by the liberal constitution. However, its rulers, the Russian emperors, generally disregarded any restrictions on their power. It was, therefore, little more than a puppet state in a personal union with the Russian Empire. The autonomy was severely curtailed following uprisings in 1830–31 and 1863, as the country became governed by viceroys, and later divided into governorates (provinces). Thus, from the start, Polish autonomy remained little more than fiction.

The capital was located in Warsaw, which towards the beginning of the 20th century became the Russian Empire's third-largest city after St. Petersburg and Moscow. The moderately multicultural population of Congress Poland was estimated at 9,402,253 inhabitants in 1897. It was mostly composed of Poles, Polish Jews, ethnic Germans, Ukrainians, Lithuanians, and a small Russian minority. The predominant religion was Roman Catholicism and the official language used within the state was Polish until the failed January Uprising (1863) when Russian became co-official as a consequence. Yiddish and German were widely spoken by their native speakers.

The territory of Congress Poland roughly corresponds to modern-day Kalisz Region and the Lublin, Łódź, Masovian, Podlaskie and Holy Cross Voivodeships of Poland as well as southwestern Lithuania and a small part of the Grodno District of Belarus.

The Kingdom of Poland effectively came to an end with the Great Retreat of Russian forces in 1915 and was succeeded by the Government General of Warsaw, established by the Germans. In 1917, part of this was renamed as the short-lived Kingdom of Poland, a client state of the Central Powers, which had a Regency Council instead of a king.

Naming
Although the official name of the state was the Kingdom of Poland (Królestwo Polskie; Царство Польское), in order to distinguish it from other Kingdoms of Poland, it is often referred to as "Congress Poland".

History
The Congress Kingdom of Poland was created out of the Duchy of Warsaw, a French client state, at the Congress of Vienna in 1815 when the great powers reorganized Europe following the Napoleonic wars. The kingdom was created from parts of the Polish territory that had been partitioned between Austria and Prussia which had been transformed into the Duchy of Warsaw by Napoleon Bonaparte in 1807. After Napoleon's 1812 defeat, the fate of the Duchy of Warsaw was dependent on Russia. Prussia insisted on the duchy being completely eliminated. After Russian troops reached Paris in 1812, Tsar Alexander I intended to annex the duchy and parts of Lithuanian lands which were historically in the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth. Both Austria and the United Kingdom, however, disapproved strongly of the idea, Austria issuing a memorandum on returning to the 1795 resolutions with support from the United Kingdom under George IV, Prime Minister Robert Jenkinson and the British delegate to the Congress, Robert Stewart, Viscount Castlereagh.

Following the Congress, Russia gained a larger share of Poland (with Warsaw) and, after crushing an insurrection in 1831, the Congress Kingdom's autonomy was abolished. Poles faced confiscation of property, deportation, forced military service, and the closure of their own universities. The Congress was important enough in the creation of the state to cause the new country to be informally named for it. The kingdom lost its status as a sovereign state in 1831 and the administrative divisions were reorganized. It was sufficiently distinct that its name remained in official Russian use, although in the later years of Russian rule it was replaced with the "Vistula Land" (Russian: Привислинский Край). Following the defeat of the November Uprising its separate institutions and administrative arrangements were abolished as part of increased Russification to be more closely integrated with the Russian Empire. However, even after this formalized annexation, the territory retained some degree of distinctiveness and continued to be referred to informally as Congress Poland until the Russian rule there ended as a result of the advance by the armies of the Central Powers in 1915 during World War I.

The kingdom was 128,500 km2 in area and originally had a population of approximately 3.3 million. The new state would be one of the smallest Polish states ever, smaller than the preceding Duchy of Warsaw and much smaller than the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth which had a population of over 10 million and an area of 1 million km2. Its population reached 6.1 million by 1870 and 10 million by 1900. The majority of ethnic Poles within the Russian Empire lived in the Congress Kingdom, although some areas outside its borders were also inhabited by strong Polish and Roman Catholic minorities.

The Kingdom of Poland largely re-emerged as a result of the efforts of Adam Jerzy Czartoryski, a Pole who aimed to resurrect the Polish state in alliance with Russia. The Kingdom of Poland was one of the few contemporary constitutional monarchies in Europe, with the emperor of Russia serving as the self-proclaimed king of Poland.

Initial independence
Theoretically, the Polish Kingdom in its 1815 form was a semi-autonomous state in personal union with Russia through the rule of the Russian emperor. The state possessed the Constitution of the Kingdom of Poland, one of the most liberal in 19th-century Europe, a Sejm (parliament) responsible to the king capable of voting laws, an independent army, currency, budget, penal code and a customs boundary separating it from the rest of Russian lands. Poland also had democratic traditions (Golden Liberty) and the Polish nobility deeply valued personal freedom. In reality, the kings had absolute power and the formal title of Autocrat, and wanted no restrictions on their rule. All opposition to the emperor of Russia was suppressed and the law was disregarded at will by Russian officials. Though the absolute rule demanded by Russia was difficult to establish due to Poland's liberal traditions and institutions, the independence of the kingdom lasted only 15 years; initially Alexander I used the title King of Poland and was obligated to observe the provisions of the constitution. However, in time the situation changed and he granted the viceroy, Grand Duke Konstantin Pavlovich, almost dictatorial powers. Very soon after Congress of Vienna resolutions were signed, Russia ceased to respect them. In 1819, Alexander I abolished freedom of the press and introduced preventive censorship. Resistance to Russian control began in the 1820s. Russian secret police commanded by Nikolay Nikolayevich Novosiltsev started the persecution of Polish secret organizations and in 1821 the King ordered the abolition of Freemasonry, which represented Poland's patriotic traditions. Beginning in 1825, the sessions of the Sejm were held in secret.

Uprisings and loss of autonomy

Alexander I's successor, Nicholas I was crowned King of Poland on 24 May 1829 in Warsaw, but he declined to swear to abide by the Constitution and continued to limit the independence of the Polish kingdom. Nicholas' rule promoted the idea of Official Nationality, consisting of Orthodoxy, Autocracy, and Nationality. In relation to Poles, those ideas meant assimilation: turning them into loyal subjects through gradual religious and cultural conversion. The principle of Orthodoxy was the result of the special role it played in the Russian Empire, as the Church was in fact becoming a department of state, and other religions discriminated against; for instance, papal bulls could not be read in the largely Catholic kingdom of Poland without agreement from the Russian government.

The rule of Nicholas also meant the end of political traditions in Poland; democratic institutions were removed, an appointed—rather than elected—centralized administration was put in place, and efforts were made to change the relations between the state and the individual. All of this led to discontent and resistance among the Polish population. In January 1831, the Sejm deposed Nicholas I as King of Poland in response to his repeated curtailing of its constitutional rights. Nicholas reacted by sending Russian troops into Poland, resulting in the November Uprising.

Following an 11-month military campaign, the Kingdom of Poland lost its semi-independent status and was integrated much more closely with the Russian Empire. This was formalized through the issuing of the Organic Statute of the Kingdom of Poland by the Emperor in 1832, which abolished the constitution, army and legislative assembly. Over the next 30 years, a series of measures bound Congress Poland ever more closely to Russia. In 1863 the January Uprising broke out but lasted only two years before being crushed. As a direct result, any remaining separate status of the kingdom was removed and the political entity was directly incorporated into the Russian Empire. The unofficial name Privislinsky Krai (Привислинский Край), i.e., 'Vistula Land', replaced 'Kingdom of Poland' as the area's official name and the area became a namestnichestvo under the control of a namiestnik until 1875, when it became a Guberniya.

Government

The government of Congress Poland was outlined in the Constitution of the Kingdom of Poland in 1815. The emperor of Russia was the official head of state, considered the king of Poland, with the local government headed by the viceroy of the Kingdom of Poland (Namiestnik), Council of State and Administrative Council, in addition to the Sejm.

In theory, Congress Poland possessed one of the most liberal governments of the time in Europe, but in practice, the area was a puppet state of the Russian Empire. The liberal provisions of the constitution, and the scope of the autonomy, were often disregarded by the Russian officials.

Polish remained an official language until the mid-1860s when it was replaced by Russian. This resulted in bilingual street signs and documents, however, the full implementation of Cyrillic script into the Polish language failed.

Executive leadership
The office of "namiestnik" was introduced in Poland by the 1815 constitution of Congress Poland. The viceroy was chosen by the king from among the noble citizens of the Russian Empire or the Kingdom of Poland. The viceroy supervised the entire public administration and, in the monarch's absence, chaired the Council of State, as well as the Administrative Council. He could veto the councils' decisions; other than that, his decisions had to be countersigned by the appropriate government minister. The viceroy exercised broad powers and could nominate candidates for most senior government posts (ministers, senators, judges of the High Tribunal, councilors of state, referendaries, bishops, and archbishops). He had no competence in the realms of finances and foreign policy; his military competence varied.

The office of "namiestnik" or viceroy was never abolished; however, the last "namiestnik" was Friedrich Wilhelm Rembert von Berg, who served from 1863 to his death in 1874. No "namiestnik" was named to replace him; however, the role of "namestnik"—viceroy of the former kingdom passed to the governor-general of Warsaw —or, to be more specific, of the Warsaw Military District (Warszawski Okręg Wojskowy, Варшавский Военный Округ).

The governor-general answered directly to the emperor and exercised much broader powers than had the "namiestnik". In particular, he controlled all the military forces in the region and oversaw the judicial systems (he could impose death sentences without trial). He could also issue "declarations with the force of law," which could alter existing laws.

Administrative Council
The Administrative Council (Rada Administracyjna) was a part of the Council of State of the kingdom. Introduced by the Constitution of the Kingdom of Poland in 1815, it was composed of five ministers, special nominees of the king and the viceroy of the Kingdom of Poland. The council executed the king's will and ruled in the cases outside the minister's competence and prepared projects for the Council of State.

Administrative divisions

The administrative divisions of the kingdom changed several times over its history, and various smaller reforms were also carried out which either changed the smaller administrative units or merged/split various subdivisions.

Immediately after its creation in 1815, the Kingdom of Poland was divided into departments, a relic from the times of the French-dominated Duchy of Warsaw.

On 16 January 1816 the administrative division was reformed, with the departments being replaced with more traditionally Polish voivodeships (of which there were eight), obwóds and powiats. On 7 March 1837, in the aftermath of the November Uprising earlier that decade, the administrative division was reformed again, bringing Congress Poland closer to the structure of the Russian Empire, with the introduction of guberniyas (governorate, Polish spelling gubernia). In 1842 the powiats were renamed okręgs, and the obwóds were renamed powiats. In 1844 several governorates were merged with others, and some others were renamed; five governorates remained.

In 1867, following the failure of the January Uprising, further reforms were instituted which were designed to bring the administrative structure of Poland (now de facto the Vistulan Country) closer to that of the Russian Empire. It divided larger governorates into smaller ones, introduced the gmina (a new lower-level entity), and restructured the existing five governorates into 10. The 1912 reform created a new governorate – Kholm Governorate – from parts of the Sedlets and Lublin Governorates. It was split off from the Vistulan Country and made part of the Southwestern Krai of the Russian Empire.

Economy
Despite the fact that the economic situation varied at times, Congress Poland was one of the largest economies in the world. In the mid 1800s the region became heavily industrialized, however, agriculture still maintained a major role in the economy. In addition, the export of wheat, rye and other crops was significant in stabilizing the financial output. An important trade partner of Congress Poland was Great Britain, which imported goods in large amounts.

Since agriculture was equivalent to 70% of the national income, the most important economic transformations included the establishment of mines and the textile industry; the development of these sectors brought more profit and higher tax revenues. The beginnings were difficult due to floods and an intense diplomatic relationship with Prussia. It was not until 1822 when Prince Francis Xavier Drucki-Lubecki negotiated to open the Polish market to the world. He also tried to introduce appropriate protective duties. A large and profitable investment was the construction of the Augustów Canal connecting Narew and Neman Rivers, which allowed to bypass Danzig (Gdańsk) and high Prussian tariffs. Drucki-Lubecki also founded the Bank Polski, for which he is mostly remembered.

The first Polish steam mill was built in 1828 in Warsaw-Solec; the first textile machine was installed in 1829. Greater use of machines led to production in the form of workshops. The government was also encouraging foreign specialists, mostly Germans, to upkeep larger establishments, or to undertake production. The Germans were also relieved of the tax burden. This allowed to create one of the largest European textile centres in Łódź and in surrounding towns like Ozorków and Zduńska Wola. These small and initially insignificant settlements later developed into large and multicultural cities, where Germans and Jews were the majority in the population. With the abolition of border customs in 1851 and further economic growth, Polish cities were gaining wealth and importance. Most notably, Warsaw, being associated with the construction of railway lines and bridges, gained priority in the entire Russian market.

Although the economic and industrial progress occurred rapidly, most of the farms, called folwarks, chose to rely on serfs and paid workforce. Only a few experimented by obtaining proper machinery and plowing equipment from England. New crops were being cultivated like sugar beet, which marked the beginning of Polish sugar refineries. The use of iron cutters and plows was also favoured among the farmers. During the January Uprising the occupying authorities sought to deprive peasant insurgents of their popularity among landed gentry. Taxes were raised and the overall economic situation of commoners worsened. The noblemen and landowners were, on the other hand, provided with more privileges, rights and even financial support in the form of bribery. The aim of this was to weaken their support for the rebellion against the Russian Empire.

Congress Poland was the largest supplier of zinc in Europe. The development of the zinc industry took place at the beginning of the 19th century. It was mostly caused by the significant increase of demand for zinc mainly in industrialized countries of Western Europe.

In 1899, Aleksander Ginsberg founded the company FOS (Fabryka Przyrządów Optycznych-"Factory of Optical Equipment") in Warsaw. It was the only firm in the Russian Empire which crafted and produced cameras, telescopes, objectives and stereoscopes. Following the outbreak of World War I the factory was moved to St. Petersburg.

Demographics
According to the Russian Empire Census of 1897, Congress Poland had a population of 9,402,253: 4,712,090 men and 4,690,163 women.

license: Creative Commons - Attribution Share-Alike - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/

title: Congress Poland


text:
Operation Echo

Operation Echo was the codename given by the Canadian Forces for its air activities during the Kosovo War in 1999. In support of the NATO Operation Allied Force Canadian aircraft based at Aviano Air Base in northeastern Italy flew bombing missions over the Balkans.

During the campaign the Canadian air contingent consisted of 18 CF-18 Hornet aircraft from 441 and 425 Tactical Fighter Squadrons, with 69 aircrew and 250 ground crew. Between March 24 and June 10, 1999, they flew 684 sorties in 224 missions, and dropped nearly 500,000 lb of gravity and precision-guided bombs. Despite the fact that they comprised less than 2% of the nearly 1,000 Allied aircraft engaged in the conflict, they flew on 10% of all bombing missions,due to this,the operation was considered as a loss for the Canadian Air Command as they did not fullfill their first and biggest goal.

title: Operation Echo


text:
Wikipedia:Typo Team

The Wikipedia Typo Team is dedicated to improving the quality of Wikipedia by correcting typos and misspellings. If you see any typos (even minor ones), please correct them. This kind of editing is a never-ending job, so we could use your help! Please consider joining our team. All you need to do is start correcting typos. We have a userbox; simply add to your userpage to proudly display your association. Also, consider adding to our pledges page to announce your new enlistment. Our project was created on November 22, 2003, and the first corrections were fixes of "". What will your contributions be? Add some of them at the works completed page so we know what our members are doing!

British vs American English, etc.

Except for articles with strong national ties, the English Wikipedia has no preference for American, British, or other forms of English as long as usage is consistent throughout the article. In most cases, articles should stay in the dialect that currently predominates and should not be converted just for the sake of conversion. Any inter-dialect conversion therefore requires glancing at the whole article to be able to determine if, for instance, flavor, color, meter, or defense (or flavour, colour, metre, or defence) should be converted. Another approach is to try to avoid dialects by using words that are English universals.

Caution is needed when changing dialects and it takes some experience to avoid pitfalls. It is easy to make over- or under-generalizations. For instance, the endings "-ize" and "-ization" are acceptable in both British and American English. So although the suffix "-ise" is more common in Commonwealth usage than "-ize", both spellings are correct. Regardless, the use of "-ize"/"-ise" should remain consistent throughout a page.

More information about dialects can be found in the following links:
 * American and British English spelling differences
 * WP:EngvarB
 * WP:EngvarB

Use edit summaries
Typo team members make many edits. It is always a good idea to give an edit summary after each of your edits, describing the change you made (see Help:Edit summary). If you made many fixes, you might say "spelling fixes" or "spelling cleanup". If the number of edits was small, you might list the exact words you fixed, such as "spelling Mississippi". You can also specify the exact change you made as with "spelling: → lens". Spelling fixes are generally marked as minor edits. Additionally, you could simultaneously promote our project in the edit summary with a small reference like "typo corrections Typo Team " or "spelling Monday WP:TYPO ". The shortcut WP:TYPO links to this project page. Edit summaries are important and other editors value them when scanning the article history. Edit summary histories are also sometimes considered during user requests for Wikipedia adminship; so, making valuable edit summaries is a good habit to form.

Some typos do not need to be corrected
Not all typos on Wikipedia need to be (or should be) corrected:

 * Spelling errors on talk pages generally should not be fixed. It is a guideline that comments, especially of others, should not be edited. Roughly this is because it can be disruptive to the communicative process, as others may have already quoted the material. Also, talk pages are not considered part of the encyclopedia proper so there is no need to bring them up to a publishable standard. On the other hand, if you were the last to post to a talk page and made a spelling or grammatical error, there's no reason not to fix it.
 * In quotes, the material being quoted may contain a typo or have archaic spelling. For typos, MOS:PLC says: "insignificant spelling and typographic errors should simply be silently corrected (for example, correct to basically)." Archaic spelling, however, should be retained: "In direct quotations, retain dialectal and archaic spellings, including capitalization" (this is quoted from the MOS page linked above).  To indicate to other editors and bots that something that appears to be an error is faithfully copied from the original, after verifying the original, put the word or phrase in either sic or Not a typo. Examples:
 * " truple [sic] threat " renders as "truple [sic] threat" and indicates to the reader that editors have verified the error is in the original, not Wikipedia.
 * " ye old bakke shoppe " renders as "" and it is assumed the reader will know the spelling is archaic. Bots will not try to spell-check this text.
 * Proper names might contain apparently misspelt words that are actually correct when used as a name. For example, "Johnny Hazzard" is a correctly spelt proper name, even though it looks similar to the word "hazard", and Australia's "Mackerel Beach", named after the type of fish, is sometimes referred to as "" in official documents.
 * Some foreign words look like misspellings of English words, but are correctly spelt for that language. For example, the Dutch word for "foundation" is "stichting", not "stitching". But non-English words should be wrapped in lang or transl.
 * Constructions may be considered valid in some dictionaries and style guides (without being labelled colloquial, obsolete, local, or otherwise substandard), yet be deprecated in other such publications. Unless Wikipedia's own WP:Manual of Style (or one of its sub-guidelines) addresses the matter specifically, such cases are covered by the principles at MOS:ENGVAR: If challenged, discuss a desired change on the talk page, and if consensus cannot be reached, default to the usage of the first major contributor. Especially, do not continue to make the same correction to other articles, if such a challenge has not been resolved, as this is liable to be deemed disruptive.

Typos can indicate larger problems

 * Be alert to passages where the typos suggest that the text has been processed by an optical character recognition (OCR) program. For instance, these programs sometimes substitute numbers for letters, like "1" for "l", an error that a human would be unlikely to make. OCRed text is likely to be a copyright violation and may need to be deleted rather than fixed. See Text copyright violations 101.
 * Spelling mistakes in filenames in  and   links must not be corrected, as this will break the link. You could request that the file be renamed and then correct any links to it once the rename has been performed.
 * News headlines imported from Wikinews, typically in "Wikinews" pages in "Portal" pages, cannot be corrected, as the importer bot will simply re-import the bad spelling. Instead, go to the talk page of the Wikinews story and request a rename using edit protected.
 * Lists generated directly from Wikidata, for example at WikiProject Women in Red, cannot be corrected, as the importer bot will simply re-import the bad spelling. Instead, go to Wikidata and edit the description there.
 * It is a truism of Wikipedia that vandals often spell things incorrectly. If the sentence in which you find a typo is unsourced or implausible, it is worth checking the article history. Often there will be a recent edit that can simply be reverted.

From a list of articles with detected typos

 * Typo Team/moss, a very active project currently spell-checking the entire encyclopedia
 * AutoWikiBrowser (AWB) with User:Uziel302/AWB cleanup.
 * AutoWikiBrowser (AWB) with the TypoScan plugin
 * Correct typos in one click
 * Lupin's Anti-vandal tool, which includes a live spell checker that checks for common typos in all newly updated articles.
 * Category:Wikipedia articles needing copy edit has many articles rife with typos (maintained by our friends at the Guild of Copy Editors)
 * Database reports/Broken section anchors

From a list of common typos

 * Typo Team/moss or Typo Team/moss has lists of the misspellings it thinks actually appear most commonly in English Wikipedia. Links to articles and "find all" searches.
 * Lists of common misspellings
 * Find a misspelling on one of these lists, and then find English Wikipedia articles to edit using the built-in search engine at Special:Search.
 * Commonly misspelled English words (selective)
 * Lists of common misspellings (comprehensive, and you can mark specific misspellings as "done" as of a today's date, to help other editors pick good typos)
 * List of commonly misused English words, though there will be many false positives (so using a grammar checker on a specific article or database dump might be more useful)
 * Doubled words are common, so you can make up your own phrases like "the the" and "of of".
 * Adopt-a-typo – you can become the caretaker of a specific typo and declare this on your user page

Browser spell checking
Recent versions of all major web browsers, including Mozilla Firefox, Google Chrome, Safari, Microsoft Edge, Internet Explorer, Opera, and Konqueror have built-in spell-checking. If you have a mouse with multiple buttons, usually a right-click over a misspelled word will offer suggested corrections. Remember that suggestions and the flagging of words as misspelled are not always accurate, and you'll need to read the context carefully.

For Firefox, additional spell-check dictionaries, such as British, American, Canadian, and Australian English, are easily installed via "Add Ons" or via a right-click "Languages" in an HTML form.

You can also search the page (including the edit window) for specific text, usually with Ctrl+f (⌘+f on Mac) or from the Edit menu.

Browser usage and grammar checking
Several browser extensions are available to check usage and grammar. Be aware that these extensions typically send the text you are editing to an external web site, which has privacy implications, especially if you use the same browser for sites other than Wikipedia. Some of these also have web demos you can copy-and-paste text into, if you don't want to install a browser extension.

 * LanguageTool – free and open source (seems to work best with short texts – use on one section at a time)
 * Grammarly – proprietary but free
 * Ginger from Ginger Software – limited preview, proprietary subscription software
 * Scribens

Utilities/scripts

 * AutoWikiBrowser has RegExTypoFix built in
 * The in-browser text editor wikEd can be customized to use RegExTypoFix.

External text editor
It is possible to select text in the edit box (up to a whole article), then copy and paste it into a local program, edit it, and copy and paste back again. For example, this may simplify alphabetical sorting of list items. However, this depends upon the character set being supported; for example, copying into a standard installation of LibreOffice Writer is likely to be successful, but Windows Notepad is likely to corrupt characters, particularly non-English ones. This will not cause trouble so long as you preview and/or compare the pasted-back text with the original before saving. A quick once-and-for-all check that an editing program is suitable is to copy a page with, say, Chinese characters to the local application, maybe change one letter, save locally and re-open, copy back to the WP edit page, and check changes.

More spelling tools
The following online tools can be used if you are unsure of how a word is spelled.

 * SpellCheck.net
 * Spell Checker

Userbox
There is a userbox to show that you are a member of the Typo Team:

Add to show the project userbox on your user page. Note the bold "Wikipedia Typo Team" in the userbox above will be a link to this project page when used on your user page. The original userbox was designed by Galaxiaad and may still be used using the old.

There are also userboxes for those who have adopted a typo, which can be found here.

Pledges
If you want, you can make a typo correction pledge on the pledges page.

Work completed
You can show your support by discussing your work completed at the works completed page.

Barnstars
If you feel like someone has done exceptional work, you can reward them with one of these.

Banner ads
There are also some "ad"-style banner images to promote the Typo Team located at Typo Team/ads.

title: Wikipedia:Typo Team


text:
Neagoe Basarab

Neagoe Basarab (c. 1459 – 15 September 1521) was the Voivode (Prince) of Wallachia between 1512 and 1521. Born into the boyar family of the Craiovești (his reign marks the climax of the family's political influence) as the son of Pârvu Craiovescu or Basarab Țepeluș cel Tânăr, Neagoe Basarab, who replaced Vlad cel Tânăr after the latter rejected Craioveşti tutelage, was noted for his abilities and competence. He is sometimes mentioned as Neagoe Basarab IV, due to other Wallachian rulers by the name Basarab (not Neagoe Basarab) preceding him on the throne, some of them certain members of the House of Basarab and some less so.

Reign

In the 16th century, Wallachia was independent, but was required to pay an exorbitant tribute to the greater force of the Ottoman Empire. Neagoe encouraged the development of crafts and trade, while maintaining a good relation with Wallachia's other powerful neighbour, Hungary.

His diplomacy attempted to establish connections with the Republic of Venice and the Papacy, even offering to mediate the dispute between Eastern Orthodoxy and Roman Catholicism, with the purpose of uniting Christendom against the Ottoman threat.

He adopted the Byzantine tradition of Church patronage, making generous donations to the Orthodox monasteries, not only in Wallachia but throughout the Balkans. During his reign the Curtea de Argeș Monastery was built (in 1517) – legend names Meșterul Manole as the chief craftsman; the account also fuses Neagoe with yet another legendary figure, Prince Radu (who would've caused Manole's death by ordering for the scaffolding to be removed while the builders were on the roof, ensuring that nobody would use Manole's craft, and thus preserving the uniqueness of the structure).

Neagoe ordered the earliest works on the old Metropolitan church in Târgoviște (the city where the edition of the Gospels was published in 1512) and St. Nicholas Church in Șcheii Brașovului.

Neagoe Basarab wrote in Church Slavonic one of the earliest literary works of Wallachia, called "The teachings of Neagoe Basarab to his son Theodosie" (translated in Romanian as Învățăturile lui Neagoe Basarab către fiul său Teodosie), where he touches various subjects such as philosophy, diplomacy, morals and ethics.

Family
He married Milica Despina, daughter of Serbia. Among their children are Teodosie of Wallachia and Ruxandra, wife of Radu of Afumați and Radu Paisie, both princes of Wallachia.

Canonisation
On 8 July 2008, the Holy Synod of the Romanian Orthodox Church officially canonised Neagoe Basarab. His feast day is celebrated every year on 26 September.

title: Neagoe Basarab


text:
Operation Kinetic (1999)

Operation Kinetic was the name given to the deployment of 1,400 Canadian soldiers to Kosovo as part of the overall NATO effort in 1999 to stabilize the region. The Canadian Huey, the CH-146 Griffon was deployed there in this operation.

title: Operation Kinetic (1999)


text:
Worshipful Company of Gunmakers

The Worshipful Company of Gunmakers, incorporating the London Proof House, is one of the 111 livery companies of the City of London.

History
The Gunmakers' Company received its royal charter of incorporation in 1637. The Proof House has statutory duties to regulate the safety of firearms in the United Kingdom. To administer proof, the company was given broad powers of 'search, gage, proof, trial and mark'. The power to search (with a constable) for unproved guns and seize them is still vested in the company today.

Since 1675, the company has been located at the London Proof House on Commercial Road, just east (outside) of Aldgate and the old City walls, in Whitechapel. It is unique amongst livery companies for being located outside the City Wall.

The Gunmakers' Company ranks seventy-third in the order of precedence of the livery companies.

Services
The major three activities of the Proof House are: proof, safety and de-activation.

Proof is the process of testing the safety of a gun barrel. It is still done as it has been since the company was established in 1637: by test-firing the gun with an over-pressure charge of powder. If the gun survives undamaged, it will be safe to shoot. If it doesn’t, it is deemed unfit for sale – and kept from the hands of the public. Although modern non-destructive inspection techniques enable the examination of the internal structure of metal to a high degree of accuracy, there is still no better way of determining which weaknesses and imperfections might prove dangerous to the user.

The Gun Barrel Proof Acts specify the rules under which proof is carried out.

Unlike many livery companies, the Gunmakers have retained an active link to their trade and consults with the government on related firearms regulation.

The testing technique involves test-firing a gun barrel, or the barrel and action using specially manufactured and controlled proof ammunition, that develops in the order of 125% of the normal service pressure intended for the gun in question. The gun is securely held in a special carriage fixture within a dedicated proof chamber and fired remotely. The barrel, or barrel and action are then inspected.

If they have maintained structural integrity, they will be stamped with proof marks indicating  the test pressure, bore diameter in millimetres at 9" from the breech face, chamber length, suitability for use with steel shot or not in the case of a smoothbore shotgun, a date stamp or code and the  mark of the proof house that tested the firearm (London or Birmingham).

The Society of the Mystery of Gunmakers of the City of London is one of only two organisations (the other being the Birmingham Proof House) approved by the Secretary of State for the deactivation and subsequent certification of the deactivation of firearms under section 58(1) Firearms Act 1968.

De-activation of firearms is a process where the gun is altered in such a way as to render them permanently incapable of firing and thus completely safe for collectors.

The Proof House Committee, which is appointed by the court of the Gunmakers’ Company, is responsible for regulating and executing the proving of small arms in accordance with the company’s charter and the Gun Barrel Proof Acts. The Proof Master, who is appointed by the court, is responsible for the day to day running and operations of the Proof House

Master Gunmakers are recognised by the Worshipful Company of Gunmakers and identified by the post nominal: MAsR.G

title: Worshipful Company of Gunmakers


text:
Worshipful Company of Gold and Silver Wyre Drawers

The Worshipful Company of Gold and Silver Wyre Drawers is one of the livery companies of the City of London. The Gold and Silver Wyre Drawers were incorporated by royal charter in 1693; the City granted it the status of a livery company in 1780. The craft originally associated with the company, namely the making of gold and silver thread for uniforms or ceremonial clothing, has declined but is still practised. Thus nowadays the company functions mainly as a charitable body.

The Gold and Silver Wyre Drawers' Company ranks seventy-fourth in the order of precedence of City livery companies. Its motto is Amicitiam Trahit Amor, Latin for Love leads to friendship — or, more literally, "love draws friendship," a punning reference to the guild's ancient craft.

The Gold and Silver Wyre Drawers' Company also has an associated Masonic Lodge, consecrated on 29 October 1945, membership of which is open only to Liverymen of the company, its motto being "The Lodge of Love and Friendship", a play on words of the ancient livery company's motto.


text:
Worshipful Company of Makers of Playing Cards

The Worshipful Company of Makers of Playing Cards is one of the livery companies of the City of London, incorporated in 1628, and ranking at No.75 in the order of precedence. It is limited to 150 members, and its livery colours are red and white.

History
The company was incorporated by royal charter granted by Charles I with effect from 22 October 1628, and was granted livery status on 27 November 1792 with a limit of a hundred members. On 21 July 1903 the limit was increased to 150. In order of precedence, the Makers of Playing Cards are No. 75, and the livery colours are red and white.

The company was created in order to regulate and control the importation of cheap playing cards, to protect the card makers and their families, and to maintain quality. The Crown received the benefit of the duties levied by the company agreeing to pay a tax on all packs, and the ace of spades was chosen to show the tax. Every maker of playing cards had to have a mark of his own enrolled to indicate recognition of his name. The excise duty on playing cards was abolished on 4 April 1960, as the cost of administration had become excessive.

The true origin of the company’s coat of arms is unknown, but an official grant of arms was presented on 31 March 1982. The shield shows the four suits with an upright hand holding an ace of hearts. The motto is ‘Corde Recto Elati Omnes’ meaning ‘with an upright heart all will be exalted’.

Traditions
Since 1882, the company has designed and presented an annual double pack of playing cards to each liveryman and freeman of the company at the installation of the new master. Since 1888, a portrait of the master has appeared at the centre of the ace of spades, and the design chosen and developed by the master has traditionally commemorated an event of importance occurring in the twelve months of the master’s year in office, such as the company’s first lord mayor and sheriff, or some royal or historical celebration. The company maintains and expands its world-famous collection of playing cards first presented by past master Henry Phillips in 1907 and housed by arrangement with the City of London at the London Metropolitan Archives. The company is undertaking a project to make digitised images of the collection available for internet access.

The Charitable Trust
Formed in 1943, in the year of the mastership of Lindsay Cutler, and administered by trustees, the funds accumulated by members’ donations and fundraising generate income used to help those under the age of 25 for educational purposes as well as financial aid to overcome hardship and distress. Benefactors include the Lord Mayor’s Appeal and various hospices.

The company today
Since the formation of the company in the Middle Ages, the production and use of playing cards in London has declined. Today the company still has cardmakers as members. However the company has many other members connected with playing cards in some way including card collectors, dealers, bridge players, magicians and other professions.

The company has several affiliations recognising the role that the Armed Services provide. Their affiliations include the naval destroyer HMS Diamond, and 19 Company; Middlesex & NW London Army Cadet Force and also 82 squadron Royal Air Force Air Cadets.


text:
User:Naddy

Also known as: Christian Weisgerber

Useful links

 * Special:Mypage/common.css · Special:Mypage/common.js · Special:Mypage/skin.css · Special:Mypage/skin.js
 * Principes de capitalisation des titres

de:Benutzer:Naddy fr:Utilisateur:Naddy

title: User:Naddy


text:
Operation Addition

Operation Addition was the name given to the Canadian contribution to United Nations Mission in Ethiopia and Eritrea, the United Nations peacekeeping forces in Ethiopia and Eritrea after the Eritrean–Ethiopian War. It began in late 2000 with Operation Eclipse during which the Canadians worked as part of a joint battle group with the Dutch peace-keeping forces. The Canadian contingent was part of an international team monitoring the Temporary Security Zone between Ethiopia and Eritrea. The commitment ended in June 2003.

title: Operation Addition


text:
Dunchurch

Dunchurch is a village and civil parish in the Borough of Rugby, approximately 2.5 mi south-west of central Rugby in Warwickshire, England. The civil parish, which also includes the nearby hamlet of Toft, had a population of 4,123 at the 2021 Census, a significant increase from 2,938 at the 2011 Census.

History
The earliest historical reference to Dunchurch was in the Domesday Book of 1086, which mentioned a settlement called Don Cerce.

The core of the village has been declared a conservation area because it has many buildings of historical interest. Some of the buildings date to the 15th century are timber-framed and still have traditional thatch roofs.

As Dunchurch was located at the crossroads of the coaching roads between London and Birmingham (now the A45 road) (classified as B4429 through the village) and Oxford and Leicester (now the A426 road), it was for centuries an important staging post. At one point, there were 27 coaching inns in Dunchurch to cater for travellers. Two of these still remain; the 'Dun Cow' and 'The Green Man' Many notable people have stayed at Dunchurch. Most notably, in 1605 the Gunpowder Plotters stayed at the 'Lion Inn' (now a private residence called 'Guy Fawkes House') in Dunchurch, convened by Sir Everard Digby, awaiting news of Guy Fawkes's attempt to blow up the Houses of Parliament. If he had been successful they planned to kidnap the King's daughter Princess Elizabeth from nearby Coombe Abbey.

Other well known people who have stayed in the village include the young Queen Victoria (before she became Queen) and the Duke of Wellington. Robert Stephenson stayed in Dunchurch when supervising the construction of the Kilsby Tunnel during the building of the London and Birmingham Railway.

Dunchurch was for many centuries a more important settlement than nearby Rugby, that changed however with the coming of the railways in the 19th century; Rugby became a major railway centre and grew into a large town, this led to a dramatic decline in the coaching trade, and a decline in the importance of Dunchurch. However, from 1871 until 1964 the village was served by its own railway station about two miles from the village on the Rugby to Leamington Spa line.

The ancient parish of Dunchurch included the village itself, plus the nearby settlements of Cawston, Thurlaston, and Toft; The former two have become separate civil parishes. In the early 1930s part of the civil parish of Dunchurch was transferred to Rugby, and the part of the parish of Bilton which was not merged with Rugby was transferred to Dunchurch.

Education
There are three schools in the area: Dunchurch Infant and Nursery School (School Street), Dunchurch Boughton C of E Junior School (Dew Close) and Bilton Grange Preparatory School (Rugby Road).

Religion
There are three churches in the village: St Peter's (Church of England) in the centre, a Methodist chapel in Cawston Lane and a Baptist church on the outskirts of the village on the Coventry road.

St Peter's, dating from the 12th century, is a grade II* listed building.

Culture
The village has a sportsfield on Rugby Road donated to the village by Baron Waring in the 1920s. Currently Dunchurch & Bilton Cricket Club play in the summer months and Dunchurch Football Club play in the winter. Cricket has been played on the land since the 1800s. In 1999 Dunchurch Cricket Club merged with Bilton Cricket Club to form Dunchurch & Bilton Cricket Club. The changing rooms for the pitches are found adjacent to the village hall which was opened in 2003. There is a large main hall which can seat up to 160 people as well as a smaller sports room. Both have attached kitchens.

Other groups in the village include: Dunchurch Silver Band, District of Dunchurch Brass, Dunchurch Festival Group, Guides, Dunchurch Health Walks, Scouts, Mothers' Union, Photographic Club, St. Peter's Bell Ringers, Dunchurch Twinning Association, Dunchurch and Thurlaston Women's Institute, Working Men's Club.

Statue
In the centre of Dunchurch is a statue of Lord John Douglas-Montagu-Scott (1809–1860) a 19th-century landlord, Scottish M.P. and younger brother of the 5th Duke of Buccleuch. The statue is by the Victorian sculptor Joseph Durham A.R.A..

Since the 1970s an annual tradition has developed in the village for a group of pranksters to secretly dress up the statue as a cartoon or TV character overnight at the beginning of the Christmas holidays. The statue was dressed up as Queen Elizabeth II during her diamond jubilee weekend celebrations. In 2012 the statue was dressed up as an Olympian for the final leg of the Olympic torch relay sporting a headband and runners jersey. 2017 saw the statue become Paddington Bear, and 2018 The Grinch.

Notable residents

 * Ian Bell, (born 1982) cricketer
 * Laura Bettinson (born 1987) singer, songwriter and record producer.
 * Alan Hodgkinson MBE, (1936–2015) footballer
 * Katharine Merry, (born 1974) retired athlete, sports commentator
 * William Tans'ur, (1706–1783) 18th-century hymnwriter

Twinning
In 1987, Dunchurch was twinned with the village of Ferrières-en-Brie in France.

Legacy
In 1877, the community of Newcombe in Ontario was renamed Dunchurch, Ontario by then postmaster George Kelcey after his birthplace in Warwickshire.

title: Dunchurch


text:
John Marsden (writer)

John Marsden (born 27 September 1950 ) is an Australian writer and alternative school principal. Marsden's books have been translated into eleven languages.

While working as a teacher, Marsden began writing for children, and had his first book, So Much to Tell You, published in 1987. Since then, he has written or edited over 40 books and has sold over 5 million books throughout the world.

In 2006, Marsden started an alternative school, Candlebark School in the Macedon Ranges. Marsden has since reduced his writing to focus on teaching and running the school. In 2016, he opened the arts-focused secondary school, Alice Miller School, also in the Macedon Ranges.

Early life
Marsden was born in Victoria and spent the first 10 years of his life living in the country towns of Kyneton, Victoria, and Devonport, Tasmania. He is a great-great-great-great nephew of colonial Anglican clergyman and magistrate Rev. Samuel Marsden. When he was 10 years old, Marsden moved to Sydney and attended The King's School, Parramatta. Marsden was accepted into Sydney University to study a double degree in Law and Arts, but eventually dropped out. He has worked at different jobs, including an abattoir, working in a mortuary, delivering pizzas, working as a motorbike courier, working as a nightwatchman, selling encyclopaedias, and working with chickens.

Early career
While working at the prestigious Geelong Grammar School's Timbertop campus as an English teacher, Marsden made the decision to write for teenagers, following his dissatisfaction with his students' apathy towards reading, or the observation that teenagers simply weren't reading anymore. Marsden then wrote So Much to Tell You in only three weeks, and the book was published in 1987. The book sold record numbers and won numerous awards including "Book of the Year" as awarded by the Children's Book Council of Australia (CBCA).

In the five years following the publication of So Much To Tell You, Marsden published six more books. Notable works from this period are Out of Time, which was nominated by the CBCA as a notable book for older readers, and Letters From the Inside and a sequel to So Much to Tell You called Take My Word For It, which were both shortlisted for the CBCA's Children's Book of the Year: Older Readers award. Upon publication in the United States, Letters From the Inside received accolades from The Horn Book Magazine and the American Library Association. American novelist Robert Cormier found the novel "unforgettable" and described John Marsden as a "major writer deserving of world-wide acclaim".

Later career
In 1993, Marsden published Tomorrow, When the War Began, the first book in the Tomorrow series and his most acclaimed and best-selling work to date. Marsden went on to write seven books in the Tomorrow series, together with a follow-up trilogy, The Ellie Chronicles, despite originally intending the series to only consist of a trilogy.

At the same time as writing the Tomorrow series, Marsden wrote several other novels such as Checkers, edited works such as This I Believe, wrote children's picture books such as The Rabbits, poetry such as Prayer for the Twenty-First Century, and non-fiction works such as Everything I Know About Writing and Secret Men's Business.

Themes
Marsden's earlier works are largely novels aimed at teenage or young adult audience. Common themes in Marsden's works include sexuality, violence in society, survival at school and in a harsh world, and conflict with adult authority figures. However, Marsden also has declared that he wishes to write about "things that have always been important for humans... [such as] love, for a start. And the absence of love. The way people relate to each other. The way people solve problems. Courage. Spirit. The human spirit."

Awards and commendations
Marsden has won every major writing award in Australia for young people's fiction including what Marsden describes as one of the highlights of his career, the 2006 Lloyd O'Neil Award for contributions to Australian publishing. This award means that Marsden is one of only five authors to be honoured for lifelong services to the Australian book industry. John Marsden was also nominated for the Astrid Lindgren Memorial Award in 2008, the world's largest children's and youth literature award and the second largest literature prize in the world.

Internationally, he has twice been named among Best Books of the Year by the American Library Association and once by Publishers Weekly(USA), has been runner-up for Dutch Children's Book of the Year and short-listed for the German Young Readers' Award, won the Grand Jury Prize as Austria's Most Popular Writer for Teenagers, and won the coveted Buxtehude Bull in Germany.

In 1996, Marsden's books took the top six places on the Teenage Fiction best-seller lists for Australia. Also in 1996, he was named "Australia's most popular author today in any literary field" by The Australian. In 1997, Australian readers voted three of his books into Australia's 100 most-loved books of all time.

In 2014, Lyndon Terracini announced that Opera Australia had co-commissioned Kate Miller-Heidke to write an opera based on Marsden's The Rabbits. The work, The Rabbits, premiered in 2015 in Perth, and was staged in Melbourne, Sydney, and Brisbane, winning several awards.

In December 2018, Marsden was awarded the Dromkeen Medal, in recognition of his outstanding achievement in children's and young adult literature.

title: John Marsden (writer)