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Time of Troubles

The Time of Troubles (Смутное время), also known as Smuta (Смута), was a period of political crisis in Russia which began in 1598 with the death of Feodor I, the last of the House of Rurik, and ended in 1613 with the accession of Michael I of the House of Romanov.

It was a period of deep social crisis and lawlessness following the death of Feodor I, a weak and possibly intellectually disabled ruler who died without an heir. His death ended the Rurik dynasty, leading to a violent succession crisis with numerous usurpers and false Dmitrys (imposters) claiming the title of tsar. Russia experienced the famine of 1601–1603, which killed almost a third of the population, within three years of Feodor's death. Russia was occupied by the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth during the Polish–Russian War (also known as the Dimitriads) until it was expelled in 1612.

The Time of Troubles ended with the election of Michael Romanov as tsar by the Zemsky Sobor in 1613, establishing the Romanov dynasty, which ruled Russia until the February Revolution in 1917.

Background
Tsar Feodor I was the second adult son of Ivan the Terrible, the first tsar of Russia. Feodor's elder brother, Tsarevich Ivan Ivanovich, was the heir apparent; Feodor was never considered a serious candidate for the Russian throne. However, Tsarevich Ivan was accidentally killed in anger by his father on 19 November 1581, making Feodor the new heir apparent.

According to Chester Dunning, "Tsar Ivan knew perfectly well that Fedor could not rule on his own; before his own death in 1584, he set up a council of regents to govern in his son's name. Ivan named as regents two leading boyars; Fedor's uncle, Nikita Romanovich Zakharyin-Yuriev (head of the Romanov clan), and Prince Ivan F. Mstislavsky; he also named two leading members of his own court: a premier prince of the blood, the popular and heroic Prince Ivan Petrovich Shuisky, and Fedor's brother-in-law, Boris Godunov. On the day of the coronation, Boris was named koniushii boiarin (master of the house or equerry) - a title that immediately identified him as the most powerful member of the boyar council. Prince Ivan Mstislavsky made a bid for power in 1585. He was stopped by the other regents and was forced to become a monk - which in Russia was an irreversible step. Out of this episode grew a tacit alliance between the Godunovs and the Romanovs to protect their families' interests." In 1586, after an anti-Godunov riot, "Aged Prince Ivan Shuisky was forced to become a monk and kept under heavy guard. Boris Godunov was now Tsar Fedor's sole regent and the most powerful man in Russia."

In the middle of the 16th century, Russia suffered famines, pestilence and internal discord which were accompanied by Ottoman-backed raids by the Crimean Khanate. In 1571, Devlet I Giray, and his army ransacked its lands in the events known as Fire of Moscow. In 1591, Ğazı II Giray and his brother Fetih I Giray launched another Crimean invasion of (1591) in Russia.

After Tsar Ivan's death on 28 March 1584, Feodor was crowned as the tsar three days later. The pious Feodor took little interest in politics, ruling through Boris Godunov (his closest advisor, a boyar, the son-in-law of Malyuta Skuratov and the brother of Feodor's wife, Irina Godunova). Feodor produced one child: a daughter, Feodosia, who died at the age of two.

According to Dunning, "At the outset of Tsar Fedor's reign, Boris Godunov and other regents moved against a threat emanating from the court faction supporting Ivan the Terrible's youngest son, Dmitrii - the child of Ivan's sixth and last wife, Maria Nagaia. In May, 1591, Tsarevich Dmitrii was reported to be dead. On the basis of testimony from several eyewitnesses," an investigative commission, "concluded that Dmitrii had accidentally slit his own throat during an epileptic seizure that came on while he was playing with a knife."

In January 1598, Fedor died. According to Dunning, "The tsar's death without an heir brought to an end the only ruling dynasty Moscow had ever known." Irina abdicated the throne to the boyar council and entered a convent. The boyars convened a Zemsky Sobor to choose a new tsar. Godunov soon prevailed over his chief rival for the throne Feodor Romanov. Godunov was crowned in September 1598, and according to Dunning, "To help calm any discontent and to cement his claim to the throne, the new tsar had himself 'elected' after the fact by a sham zemskii sobor." After the Romanov conspiracy of 1600, Feodor Romanov was forced to become a monk.

"Boris Godunov has been called one of Russia's greatest rulers," according to Dunning, "The man responsible for the expansion of Russia at the end of the sixteenth century was Boris Godunov." Yet in 1592, he had effectively enserfed millions, burdened the populace with heavy taxes, harassed the free cossacks, and in 1597, introduced a slave law converting contract slaves into slaves for life.

Russia experienced a famine in 1601–1603 after extremely poor harvests, with nighttime temperatures in the summer months often below freezing. Famine enveloped the country in 1602, followed by disease, claiming a third to two thirds of the population. Hunger riots, and the Khlopko rebellion of September 1603 also caused social instability.

False Dmitry I
According to Dunning, "Russia's first civil war came about as a direct result of the bold invasion of the country by a man claiming to be Tsarevich Dmitrii, somehow 'miraculously' rescued from the 'usurper' Boris Godunov's alleged assassination attempt in 1591 and now returning to claim the throne from the illegitimate 'false tsar' Boris."

Conspiracies were rampant after Feodor's death. Rumors circulated that his younger brother, Dmitry, was still alive and in hiding (despite official accounts that he had been stabbed to death at an early age, by accident or by Godunov's order). Russia's political instability was exploited by several usurpers, known as False Dmitrys, who claimed to be the tsarevich (and heir to the tsardom). False Dmitry I appeared in the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth in 1603, claiming to be the heir to the Russian throne.

According to Dunning, "The source of the pretender scheme was a conspiracy among Russian lords. When Dmitrii finally revealed himself in Poland-Lithuania in 1603, Tsar Boris openly accused the boyars of organizing the pretender scheme. There is, in fact, quite a bit of evidence linking the pretender to the Romanov clan." Dimitrii had revealed his identity to the Ukrainian magnate Prince Adam Vishnevetsky, who helped him gain the support of the Zaporozhian and Don cossacks. Jerzy Mniszech housed Dmitrii, and helped secure several witnesses testifying him to be the Tsarevich Dmitrii. Dunning notes, "King Sigismund, Polish Catholic leaders, and the Jesuits soon took great interest in reports that Dmitrii was considering conversion to Catholicism. They dreamed, among other things, of converting all of Russia and then using the Russians against Sweden."

By September 1604, Mniszech, as Dmitrii's commander-in-chief, had gathered about 2500 men. On October 1604, they crossed the Poland-Lithuania border into Russia. According to Dunning, "Dmitrii's invasion in October 1604 triggered the first phase of Russia's first civil war - a massive rebellion of southwestern and southern frontier provinces, towns, garrisons, and cossacks that grew into a much wider conflict that toppled the Godunov dynasty."

After Godunov's death in 1605, False Dmitry I made a triumphal entrance into Moscow and was crowned tsar on 21 July. He consolidated power by visiting the tomb of Ivan the Terrible and the convent of Ivan's widow, Maria Nagaya, who accepted Dimitry as her son and confirmed his story. False Dimitry I was married per procura to Marina Mniszech on 8 May 1606, in exchange for promises of land grants and wealth. He converted to Catholicism, relying on Polish Jesuits and Polish nobles (who were prominent at his court) and on Mniszech's private armies.

Vasili IV Shuisky
According to Dunning, "Tsar Dmitrii's nemesis, Prince Vasilii Shuiskii, was one of the most senior and prestigious boyars whose family of Suzdal princes traced their ancestry back to Rurik…Tsar Dmitrii was a popular ruler while the conspirators represented only a relatively small group of disgruntled and ambitious individuals." Soon after Dmitrii's entry into Moscow, Vasilii, and his brothers Dmitrii and Ivan, spread the word that the tsar was Grishka Otrepyev, a runaway defrocked monk. Vasilii was condemned to exile, but then allowed to return to Moscow, and reinstated in the boyar council. Yet, "As soon as Vasilii Shuiskii returned to Moscow in late 1605, he began secretly conspiring to assassinate Tsar Dmitrii…By spring 1606, Shuskii could count on the support of some individuals at court, in the church, and among the merchant elite."

False Dmitry I quickly became unpopular, since many in Russia saw him as a tool of the Poles. On 17 May 1606, ten days after his marriage, Dmitry was killed by armed mobs during an uprising in Moscow after he was ousted from the Kremlin. Many of his Polish advisors were also killed or imprisoned during the rebellion.

Vasilii Shuiskii's conspirators included his brothers Dmitrii and Ivan, his nephew Mikhail Skopin-Shuisky, Vasily and Ivan Golitsyn, okolnichy Ivan Kriuk-Kolychev, okolnichy Mikhail Tatishchev, monks, priests, clerics, merchants, plus trusted dvoriane and deti boiarskie from Novgorod, Pskov, Smolensk, and Moscow. Several thousand Polish wedding guests were in Moscow for the tsar's wedding to the Polish princess Marina Mniszech. On the morning of 17 May 1606, Vasily Golitsyn and Mikhail Tatishchev led the assault on the Kremlin Frolov gate while Vasilli Shuiskii sent heralds warning Muscovites that the Poles were attempting to assassinate the tsar. A terrible massacre followed with six or seven hours of rioting in which 420 Poles were killed, and several hundred Russians. This allowed assassins to kill the tsar's guards. The tsar, fell and broke his leg while jumping out of a window, and was shot by Mylnikov. Shuiskii then attempted to justify the assassination by demonizing the tsar, claiming he was a sorcerer and skomorokh. His corpse lay on Red Square for three days, was denied a Christian burial, and was eventually burned. Legend states that his ashes were fired from a cannon in the direction from which he had arrived to Moscow. Yet a rumor was soon started that a foreigner resembling the tsar had been killed, which soon led to another civil war in the name of the "true tsar" Dmitrii.

On 19 May 1606, Shuiskii's co-conspirators met at his townhouse, planning his assumption of power, and then proceeded to Red Square where he was proclaimed tsar. According to Dunning, "The narrowness of the group supporting him, his reputation as a liar, his act of regicide, his hasty seizure of power without the approval of a zemsky sobor, and his lack of any serious effort to gain the support of the common people all combined to undermine Tsar Vasilii's credibility and to destabilize his reign from the outset." Referred to as the "boyar-tsar", Shuiskii had himself crowned on 1 June, he then stripped Filaret Romanov of his office. Yet, Mikhail Molchanov escaped the assassination plot, fleeing to Putivl, where he conspired with Grigory Shakhovskoy to initiate the uprising of Bolotnikov.

According to Dunning, "Both before and during the siege of Moscow, Bolotnikov had written to Prince Shakhovskoi in Putvil urging him to find Tsar Dmitri and bring him to Moscow. Unable to comply, Shakhovskoi instead at some point made contact with the large group of cossacks on the southern frontier who were headed by the self-styled 'Tsarevich Petr,' the mythical son of Tsar Fedor Ivanovich who had supposedly been hidden from the evil Boris Godunov as a child and had grown up in obscurity. Shakhovskoi knew perfectly well that no such person existed, but he nevertheless invited Petr and his cossacks to hurry to Putivl to help restore Tsar Dmitrii to the throne." Shakhovskoi told Petr, that in the absence of Tsar Dmitri's arrival, "Petr could be tsar, since he was the true born son of Feodor Ivanovich and therefore the lawful heir to the realm." Tsarevich Petr was in reality Ilia Korovin, the illegitimate son of a Murom woman and the cobbler Ivan Korovin. In January 1607, Petr left Putivl for Tula with an army of 30,000. In May, Bolotnikov retreated to Tula following the siege of Kaluga. In June, Tsar Vasilii started the four-month siege of Tula. In July 1607, a new impostor, False Dmitry II, came forward as the heir. According to Dunning, "At some point, the emissary from Tsarevich Petr and Bolotnikov, Ivan Zarutsky, stepped forward, also 'recognized' the tsar, and presented him with letters from the Tula leadership." On 11 October, False Dmitrii's army occupied Kozelsk. Tula had surrendered the day before, after the Tsar's army dammed the Upa, flooding Tula. Amongst those captured were Bolotnikov and Tsarevich Petr. Shakhovskoi and Yury Bezzubtsev also were captured, but escaped, joining the "second false Dmitrii." However, Tsarevich Petr was tortured and publicly hanged outside Moscow, while Bolotnikov was executed in Kargopol.

On 29 October 1607, the "second false Dmitrii" was joined by a group of Polish lords, with 1800 mercenaries, followed by another group of Polish lords and mercenaries in November. According to Dunning, "Also joining him at about this time was another copy-cat pretender, 'Tsarevich Fedor Fedorovich,' who claimed to be Tsarevich Petr's younger brother. Foreign mercenaries, cossacks, and some of Bolotnikov's men from Tula, including his lieutenant Ivan Zarutsky, continued to join the army. Then in April 1608, the Ukrainian Prince Roman Rozynski joined with 4000 foreign mercenaries. In the spring, Dmitrii's army attacked Dmitrii Vasilii's men at Bolkhov, defeating him after a four day battle. Advancing onward to Moscow, the second false Dmitrii set up court in Tushino, and laid siege to Moscow over the next eighteen months. According to Dunning, "Members of the Romanov clan, in particular, flocked to Tushino." In September 1608, Rozynski's men covered the areas west and south of Moscow, while Jan Piotr Sapieha's men covered the area north, defeating Prince Ivan Shuisky's men, and besieging the Trinity-St. Sergius monastery.

According to Dunning, "Russia was virtually inundated by a wave of opportunistic copy-cat tsarist pretenders during the later stages of the civil war." This included up to ten more pretenders, but the Tushino imposter brooked no rivals, hanging "Tsarevich Fedor Fedorovich" and "Tsarevich Ivan-Avgust," who claimed to be the son of Ivan the Terrible and his fourth wife Anna Koltsovskaia. In November 1608, a popular movement against the false Dmitrii started in Galich, and soon spread to Vologda and Kostroma, one in which Aleksander Józef Lisowski was unable to stop in the early part of 1609. In February, Tsar Vasilii was the target of an unsuccessful coup attempt by Mikhail Tatishchev, followed by another by Ivan Kriuk-Kolychev in the spring, both of whom were put to death. Then Prokofy Lyapunov declared himself the "white tsar", and led a revolt from the Riazan area. In the summer of 1609, the Crimean Tatars invaded Russia capturing slaves for their markets.

In February 1609, Prince Skopin-Shuisky signed a treaty with Charles IX of Sweden's representatives in Vyborg. In return for the use of 3000 mercenaries composed of Germans, English, Scots and French, Sweden would receive the Korela Fortress and surrounding towns and villages. On 10 May 1609, Prince Skopin-Shuisky led these mercenaries, along with 3000 Russian soldiers, from Novgorod for Aleksandrov, where he joined Fedor Sheremetev's army advancing from Nizhnii Novgorod after retreating from Astrakhan. In September 1609, King Sigismund III Vasa of Poland invaded Russia and began the siege of Smolensk. In late December 1609, the false Dmitrii fled for Kaluga. According to Dunning, "The 'tsar's' departure caused the entire Tushino camp to break up in disarray." On 4 February 1610, the Russian lords formally in the Tushino court signed a treaty with Sigismund III, hoping to end the civil war and restore order. According to Dunning, "Most Russian lords in the collapsing Tushino court came to believe that rebellion in the name of 'Tsar Dmitrii' was now a lost cause. Not surprisingly, they chose to negotiate with Sigismund III. Patriarch Filaret, other members of the Romanov clan, boyar Mikhail G. Saltykov, and Mikhail Molchanov were ready to support Sigismund's son, Wladyslaw, as tsar." Included in the Polish service were Rozynski, and Ivan Zarutsky's cossacks. However, Prince Shakhovskoi and Jan-Piotr Sapieha brought cossacks and foreign troops to the false Dmitrii's camp in Kaluga.

Tsar Vasilii made his brother Dmitry Shuisky his main commander following the death of Skopin-Shuisky. In June, aided by 10,000 mercenary troops supplied by King Karl, plus a spring levy, Dmitry Shuisky soon had an army of 30,000. Grigory Valuyev led an advance force of 6000 to Klushino, hoping to block Hetman Zolkiewski's advance. However, during the De la Gardie campaign, Dmitry Shuisky and Jacob De la Gardie failed to stop Zolkiewski's successful attack on Valuev's camp. During the Battle of Klushino, both De la Gardie and Valuev switched sides, while the Russian army's retreat became a rout, and the Poles advanced to Viazma. Simultaneously, the false Dmitrii's army advanced to Kolomenskoe.

Polish and Swedish intervention
Tsar Vasilii was now without an army, and Prokofy Lyapunov, Vasilii Golitsyn, and Filaret Romanov, along with others, plotted the overthrow of the unpopular tsar. On 17 July, they arrested Shuiskii, forced him to become a monk, and imprisoned him in a Kremlin monastery. A council of Seven Boyars ruled, until a zemsky sobor could be convened. Yet, with the arrival of Zolkiewski's army, and the false Dmitrii's army threatening Moscow, according to Dunning, "Up to five hundred courtiers, gentry, bureaucrats, and others traveled to Zolkiewski's camp to negotiate...The council of seven now quickly agreed to invite Wladyslaw to rule, and on August 17, about ten thousand Russians swore an oath of loyalty to Tsar Wladyslaw."

Yet, Sigismund's true intentions of conquering and personally ruling Russia became known after he arrested potential candidates to the throne, continued the siege of Smolensk, allowed Polish raids on Russian towns, and then established a Polish garrison composed of 800 mostly German mercenaries under the command of Alexander Gosiewski. On 11 December 1610, the false Dmitrii was killed in an act of revenge by Prince Petr Urusov, the captain of his bodyguard, while his widow Marina gave birth to his son "Tsarevich Ivan Dmitrievich". Muscovites then, according to Dunning, "...came to loathe Moscow's brutal foreign rulers and the Russian traitors who assisted them."

Anti-Catholic and anti-Polish sentiment was aroused in Russia, which infuriated the pro-Polish boyars. Sweden continued the Polish–Swedish wars on the Baltic coast, ending their military alliance with Russia, and began the Ingrian War. By this time, Russia was a failed state; the throne was vacant, the nobility quarreled among themselves, the Orthodox Patriarch Hermogenes was imprisoned, Catholic Poles occupied the Kremlin, Smolensk was still besieged, and Protestant Swedes occupied Novgorod. Tens of thousands died in battles and riots as bands of brigands swarmed, and Crimean Tatar raids depopulated and devastated Russia's southern borderlands.

According to Dunning, "Almost overnight Pozharskii, Liapunov, and even Zarutskii gained enormous prestige and popularity for fighting the hated foreigners. In January 1611, Nizhni Novgorod informed Prokofy Liapunov that the town, on the advice of Pariarch Hermogen and the 'entire realm,' had resolved to raise forces to liberate Moscow." Though imprisoned, "...Hermogen still managed to continue stirring up the patriot cause by writing incendiary letters to Russian towns right up to his death by starvation in February 1612." The cousins King Karl and King Sigismund were acting like competing conquerors, with Sweden occupying Korela in March, and the Poles occupying Smolensk in June. On 17 July 1611, Sweden's de la Gardie occupied Novgorod, and by early 1612, had annexed many border towns and fortresses, cutting Russia off from the Baltic Sea.

Popular discontent had increased by early 1611, and many sought to end the Polish occupation. Polish and German mercenaries suppressed riots in Moscow from 19 to 21 March 1611, massacring 7,000 people and setting the city on fire. The Polish commander Gosiewski had ordered the outer city burned, giving time for the Poles to stop the Muscovite uprising, and attacks of the "national militia," when Prince Pozharskii was seriously wounded. According to Dunning, "In that bloody work they were actively assisted by Mikhail G. Saltykov, members of the council of seven (especially Fedor Mstislavsky, Fedor Sheremetev, and Ivan Romanov), other nobles, and rich merchants who greatly feared their own countrymen and knew what fate awaited them if the insurgents were successful." The Polish occupation was now reduced to the Kremlin and Kitaigorod, which the Poles looted.

In the spring of 1611, the national militia was led by Prokofi Liapunov, and the Cossack leaders Dmitrii Trubetskoi and Ivan Zarutskii. On 22 July 1611 however, Liapunov was killed in a dispute with the Cossacks. Zarutskii became the militia leader, and he effectively stopped the summer offensive of Jan Karol Chodkiewicz.

False Dmitry III first appeared in Novgorod, then in Ivangorod on 23 March 1611. On 4 December 1611, this third false Dmitry arrived in Pskov. On 2 March 1612, a large number of Cossacks declared for the new false Dmitry. Yet Zarutskii viewed this new Dmitry as a threat, and organized his capture on 20 May 1612, and eventually had him hanged.

In the fall of 1611, Kuzma Minin, a butcher from Nizhny Novgorod, collected taxes from the populace, monasteries and crown peasant villages to fund a second militia (Второе народное ополчение). Minin recruited Prince Dmitry Pozharsky to lead them. Yaroslavl became the headquarters of the growing militia, and seat of the new provisional government. In June 1612, Pozharskii secured a truce with Sweden, allowing his army to advance upon Moscow, arriving there on 28 July 1612. Zarutski fled to Kolomna, with Marina, Ivan, and a few Cossacks.

Battle of Moscow
In January 1612, part of the Polish army mutinied because of unpaid wages and retreated from Russia towards the Commonwealth. The Second Volunteer Army joined the other anti-Polish Russian forces in Moscow, besieging the Polish garrison remaining in the Kremlin. Well-armed and organised, the Second Volunteer Army took Yaroslavl in March 1612 and set up a Russian provisional government supported by a number of cities. Minin and Pozharsky entered Moscow in August 1612 when they learned that a 9,000-strong Polish army under hetman Jan Karol Chodkiewicz was on the way to lift the siege. On 1 September, the Battle of Moscow began; Chodkiewicz's forces reached the city, using cavalry attacks in the open and new tactics such as a mobile tabor fort. After early successes, Chodkiewicz's forces were driven from Moscow by Russian-aligned Don Cossack reinforcements. On 3 September, he launched another attack which reached the walls of the Kremlin; Moscow's narrow streets halted the movement of his troops, however, and he ordered a retreat after a Russian counter-attack. On 22 September 1612, the Poles and Lithuanians took and burned Vologda killing and capturing many of its inhabitants; many other cities were also devastated or weakened.

According to Dunning, "On October 26, Mstislavskii...led Ivan Romanov, Mikhail Romanov, and other sheepish aristocrats out of the Kremlin. The next day, October 27, the Polish garrison surrendered unconditionally, and national militia forces entered the capital."

Michael Romanov and aftermath
The Zemsky Sobor elected Michael Romanov, the 16-year-old son of Patriarch Filaret of Moscow, tsar of Russia on 21 February 1613, and was crowned on 21 July. According to Dunning, "It is one of the great and tragic ironies of Russian history that the founder of the Romanov dynasty quickly put an end to the Troubles in part by crushing the very same patriotic cossacks who saved the country and brought him to power."

Romanov was connected by marriage with the Rurikids, and reportedly had been saved from his enemies by the heroic peasant Ivan Susanin. After he took power, Romanov ordered False Dmitry II's three-year-old son hanged and reportedly had Marina Mniszech strangled to death in prison.

The Ingrian War lasted until the Treaty of Stolbovo in 1617, and the Russo-Polish War continued until the 1619 Truce of Deulino. Although Russia gained peace through treaties and preserved its independence, it was forced by Sweden and the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth to make substantial territorial concessions; most, however, were recovered during the next сentury. Ingria was ceded to the Swedes (who established Swedish Ingria), and Severia and the city of Smolensk were retained by the Poles. The Time of Troubles united the Russian social classes around the Romanov tsars, laying the foundation for the later reforms of Peter the Great.

Estimates of total deaths caused by the conflict range from 1 to 1.2 million, while some areas of Russia experienced population declines of over 50%. The cultivated area in Central Russia shrank by several times. Due to the shrinking population the peasants' wages improved and the process of enserfment which had intensified in the second half of the 16th century was rolled back to a degree.

Cultural allusions
Unity Day was held annually on 4 November to commemorate the capitulation of the Polish garrison in the Kremlin until the rise of the Soviet Union, when it was replaced by celebrations of the October Revolution. It was reinstated by President Vladimir Putin in 2005.

The Time of Troubles has inspired artists and playwrights in Russia and abroad. The three most popular subjects are the Pozharsky-Minin liberation of Moscow, the struggle between Boris Godunov and False Dmitry I, and Ivan Susanin, a peasant who supposedly sacrificed himself to lead the Poles away from Mikhail Romanov:
 * A Life for the Tsar (Ivan Susanin during the Soviet era), an opera by Mikhail Glinka
 * Boris Godunov, a play by Alexander Pushkin
 * Boris Godunov, an opera by Modest Mussorgsky based on Pushkin's play
 * Two operas about False Dmitriy I: Dimitrij by Antonín Dvořák and Dimitri by Victorin de Joncières, with libretti based on Friedrich Schiller's unfinished play Demetrius
 * The Monument to Minin and Pozharsky, in Red Square
 * Minin and Pozharsky, a film by Vsevolod Pudovkin
 * 1612, a 2007 epic film

Russian and Polish artists have painted a number of works based on the period. Chester Dunning, in his 2001 book Russia's First Civil War: The Time of Troubles and the Founding of the Romanov Dynasty, wrote that modern Russia began in 1613 with the founding of the Romanov dynasty.

title: Time of Troubles


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Wikipedia talk:Requests for arbitration/Plautus satire vs Raul654/Evidence

User:Raul654/Plautus is quite long and detailed by now, but not all-encompassing. There are more things I could still add. Is the page (as it is) sufficient for your decision, or would you like more? If it is sufficient, I would rather not waste my time adding more. →Raul654 18:08, Feb 29, 2004 (UTC)

 * I expect we have everything we need regarding Plautus's behaviour. We'll let you know if there are any further questions.

 * Plautus of course made some allegations regarding your behaviour (and the behaviour of other Wikipedians). If you feel it would be helpful, you may wish to respond to some of those allegations. Martin 21:56, 1 Mar 2004 (UTC)

 * Ok - besides his allegation that we (myself, Evercat, Curps, Sheikyourbooty) have a vendetta against him, is there anything in particular you would like me to respond to? →Raul654 21:58, Mar 1, 2004 (UTC)

 * Not personally, at this stage. Martin 22:05, 1 Mar 2004 (UTC)

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


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User talk:212.77.192.61

Nomination of Pedant for deletion
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The article will be discussed at Articles for deletion/Pedant until a consensus is reached, and anyone, including you, is welcome to contribute to the discussion. The nomination will explain the policies and guidelines which are of concern. The discussion focuses on high-quality evidence and our policies and guidelines.

Users may edit the article during the discussion, including to improve the article to address concerns raised in the discussion. However, do not remove the article-for-deletion notice from the top of the article until the discussion has finished.  - Skipple  ☎  03:25, 4 May 2024 (UTC)

title: User talk:212.77.192.61


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Randomized algorithm

A randomized algorithm is an algorithm that employs a degree of randomness as part of its logic or procedure. The algorithm typically uses uniformly random bits as an auxiliary input to guide its behavior, in the hope of achieving good performance in the "average case" over all possible choices of random determined by the random bits; thus either the running time, or the output (or both) are random variables.

There is a distinction between algorithms that use the random input so that they always terminate with the correct answer, but where the expected running time is finite (Las Vegas algorithms, for example Quicksort ), and algorithms which have a chance of producing an incorrect result (Monte Carlo algorithms, for example the Monte Carlo algorithm for the MFAS problem ) or fail to produce a result either by signaling a failure or failing to terminate. In some cases, probabilistic algorithms are the only practical means of solving a problem.

In common practice, randomized algorithms are approximated using a pseudorandom number generator in place of a true source of random bits; such an implementation may deviate from the expected theoretical behavior and mathematical guarantees which may depend on the existence of an ideal true random number generator.

Motivation
As a motivating example, consider the problem of finding an ‘a’ in an array of n elements.

Input: An array of n≥2 elements, in which half are ‘a’s and the other half are ‘b’s.

Output: Find an ‘a’ in the array.

We give two versions of the algorithm, one Las Vegas algorithm and one Monte Carlo algorithm.

Las Vegas algorithm:

This algorithm succeeds with probability 1. The number of iterations varies and can be arbitrarily large, but the expected number of iterations is

 * $$ \lim_{n \to \infty} \sum_{i = 1}^{n} \frac{i}{2^i} = 2$$

Since it is constant, the expected run time over many calls is $$\Theta(1)$$. (See Big Theta notation)

Monte Carlo algorithm: If an ‘a’ is found, the algorithm succeeds, else the algorithm fails. After k iterations, the probability of finding an ‘a’ is: $$\Pr[\mathrm{find~a}] = 1 - (1/2)^k$$

This algorithm does not guarantee success, but the run time is bounded. The number of iterations is always less than or equal to k. Taking k to be constant the run time (expected and absolute) is $$\Theta(1)$$.

Randomized algorithms are particularly useful when faced with a malicious "adversary" or attacker who deliberately tries to feed a bad input to the algorithm (see worst-case complexity and competitive analysis (online algorithm)) such as in the Prisoner's dilemma. It is for this reason that randomness is ubiquitous in cryptography. In cryptographic applications, pseudo-random numbers cannot be used, since the adversary can predict them, making the algorithm effectively deterministic. Therefore, either a source of truly random numbers or a cryptographically secure pseudo-random number generator is required. Another area in which randomness is inherent is quantum computing.

In the example above, the Las Vegas algorithm always outputs the correct answer, but its running time is a random variable. The Monte Carlo algorithm (related to the Monte Carlo method for simulation) is guaranteed to complete in an amount of time that can be bounded by a function the input size and its parameter k, but allows a small probability of error. Observe that any Las Vegas algorithm can be converted into a Monte Carlo algorithm (via Markov's inequality), by having it output an arbitrary, possibly incorrect answer if it fails to complete within a specified time. Conversely, if an efficient verification procedure exists to check whether an answer is correct, then a Monte Carlo algorithm can be converted into a Las Vegas algorithm by running the Monte Carlo algorithm repeatedly till a correct answer is obtained.

Computational complexity
Computational complexity theory models randomized algorithms as probabilistic Turing machines. Both Las Vegas and Monte Carlo algorithms are considered, and several complexity classes are studied. The most basic randomized complexity class is RP, which is the class of decision problems for which there is an efficient (polynomial time) randomized algorithm (or probabilistic Turing machine) which recognizes NO-instances with absolute certainty and recognizes YES-instances with a probability of at least 1/2. The complement class for RP is co-RP. Problem classes having (possibly nonterminating) algorithms with polynomial time average case running time whose output is always correct are said to be in ZPP.

The class of problems for which both YES and NO-instances are allowed to be identified with some error is called BPP. This class acts as the randomized equivalent of P, i.e. BPP represents the class of efficient randomized algorithms.

Sorting
Quicksort was discovered by Tony Hoare in 1959, and subsequently published in 1961. In the same year, Hoare published the quickselect algorithm, which finds the median element of a list in linear expected time. It remained open until 1973 whether a deterministic linear-time algorithm existed.

Number theory
In 1917, Henry Cabourn Pocklington introduced a randomized algorithm known as Pocklington's algorithm for efficiently finding square roots modulo prime numbers. In 1970, Elwyn Berlekamp introduced a randomized algorithm for efficiently computing the roots of a polynomial over a finite field. In 1977, Robert M. Solovay and Volker Strassen discovered a polynomial-time randomized primality test (i.e., determining the primality of a number). Soon afterwards Michael O. Rabin demonstrated that the 1976 Miller's primality test could also be turned into a polynomial-time randomized algorithm. At that time, no provably polynomial-time deterministic algorithms for primality testing were known.

Data structures
One of the earliest randomized data structures is the hash table, which was introduced in 1953 by Hans Peter Luhn at IBM. Luhn's hash table used chaining to resolve collisions and was also one of the first applications of linked lists. Subsequently, in 1954, Gene Amdahl, Elaine M. McGraw, Nathaniel Rochester, and Arthur Samuel of IBM Research introduced linear probing, although Andrey Ershov independently had the same idea in 1957. In 1962, Donald Knuth performed the first correct analysis of linear probing, although the memorandum containing his analysis was not published until much later. The first published analysis was due to Konheim and Weiss in 1966.

Early works on hash tables either assumed access to a fully random hash function or assumed that the keys themselves were random. In 1979, Carter and Wegman introduced universal hash functions, which they showed could be used to implement chained hash tables with constant expected time per operation.

Early work on randomized data structures also extended beyond hash tables. In 1970, Burton Howard Bloom introduced an approximate-membership data structure known as the Bloom filter. In 1989, Raimund Seidel and Cecilia R. Aragon introduced a randomized balanced search tree known as the treap. In the same year, William Pugh introduced another randomized search tree known as the skip list.

Implicit uses in combinatorics
Prior to the popularization of randomized algorithms in computer science, Paul Erdős popularized the use of randomized constructions as a mathematical technique for establishing the existence of mathematical objects. This technique has become known as the probabilistic method. Erdős gave his first application of the probabilistic method in 1947, when he used a simple randomized construction to establish the existence of Ramsey graphs. He famously used a much more sophisticated randomized algorithm in 1959 to establish the existence of graphs with high girth and chromatic number.

Quicksort
Quicksort is a familiar, commonly used algorithm in which randomness can be useful. Many deterministic versions of this algorithm require O(n2) time to sort n numbers for some well-defined class of degenerate inputs (such as an already sorted array), with the specific class of inputs that generate this behavior defined by the protocol for pivot selection. However, if the algorithm selects pivot elements uniformly at random, it has a provably high probability of finishing in O(n log n) time regardless of the characteristics of the input.

Randomized incremental constructions in geometry
In computational geometry, a standard technique to build a structure like a convex hull or Delaunay triangulation is to randomly permute the input points and then insert them one by one into the existing structure. The randomization ensures that the expected number of changes to the structure caused by an insertion is small, and so the expected running time of the algorithm can be bounded from above. This technique is known as randomized incremental construction.

Min cut
Input: A graph G(V,E)

Output: A cut partitioning the vertices into L and R, with the minimum number of edges between L and R.

Recall that the contraction of two nodes, u and v, in a (multi-)graph yields a new node u ' with edges that are the union of the edges incident on either u or v, except from any edge(s) connecting u and v. Figure 1 gives an example of contraction of vertex A and B. After contraction, the resulting graph may have parallel edges, but contains no self loops. Karger's basic algorithm: begin i = 1 repeat repeat Take a random edge (u,v) ∈ E in G            replace u and v with the contraction u'         until only 2 nodes remain obtain the corresponding cut result Ci        i = i + 1 until i = m    output the minimum cut among C1, C2, ..., Cm. end In each execution of the outer loop, the algorithm repeats the inner loop until only 2 nodes remain, the corresponding cut is obtained. The run time of one execution is $$O(n)$$, and n denotes the number of vertices. After m times executions of the outer loop, we output the minimum cut among all the results. The figure 2 gives an example of one execution of the algorithm. After execution, we get a cut of size 3.

$$

$$

$$

$$

Analysis of algorithm
The probability that the algorithm succeeds is 1 − the probability that all attempts fail. By independence, the probability that all attempts fail is $$ \prod_{i=1}^m \Pr(C_i\neq C)=\prod_{i=1}^m(1-\Pr(C_i=C)). $$

By lemma 1, the probability that $C = \{e_{1}, e_{2}, ..., e_{k}\}$ is the probability that no edge of C is selected during iteration i. Consider the inner loop and let $e ∈ C$ denote the graph after j edge contractions, where $C_{i} = C$. $V=L∪R$ has $C : C = { {u,v} ∈ E : u ∈ L,v ∈ R }$ vertices. We use the chain rule of conditional possibilities. The probability that the edge chosen at iteration j is not in C, given that no edge of C has been chosen before, is $$1-\frac{k}{|E(G_j)|}$$. Note that $C_{i} = C$ still has min cut of size k, so by Lemma 2, it still has at least $$\frac{(n-j)k}{2}$$ edges.

Thus, $$1-\frac{k}{|E(G_j)|}\geq 1-\frac{2}{n-j}=\frac{n-j-2}{n-j}$$.

So by the chain rule, the probability of finding the min cut C is $$ \Pr[C_i=C] \geq \left(\frac{n-2}{n}\right)\left(\frac{n-3}{n-1}\right)\left(\frac{n-4}{n-2}\right)\ldots\left(\frac{3}{5}\right)\left(\frac{2}{4}\right)\left(\frac{1}{3}\right). $$

Cancellation gives $$\Pr[C_i=C] \geq \frac{2}{n(n-1)}$$. Thus the probability that the algorithm succeeds is at least $$1- \left(1-\frac{2}{n(n-1)}\right)^m$$. For $$m = \frac{n(n-1)}{2}\ln n$$, this is equivalent to $$1-\frac{1}{n}$$. The algorithm finds the min cut with probability $$1 - \frac{1}{n}$$, in time $$O(mn) = O(n^3 \log n)$$.

Derandomization
Randomness can be viewed as a resource, like space and time. Derandomization is then the process of removing randomness (or using as little of it as possible). It is not currently known if all algorithms can be derandomized without significantly increasing their running time. For instance, in computational complexity, it is unknown whether P = BPP, i.e., we do not know whether we can take an arbitrary randomized algorithm that runs in polynomial time with a small error probability and derandomize it to run in polynomial time without using randomness.

There are specific methods that can be employed to derandomize particular randomized algorithms:
 * the method of conditional probabilities, and its generalization, pessimistic estimators
 * discrepancy theory (which is used to derandomize geometric algorithms)
 * the exploitation of limited independence in the random variables used by the algorithm, such as the pairwise independence used in universal hashing
 * the use of expander graphs (or dispersers in general) to amplify a limited amount of initial randomness (this last approach is also referred to as generating pseudorandom bits from a random source, and leads to the related topic of pseudorandomness)
 * changing the randomized algorithm to use a hash function as a source of randomness for the algorithm's tasks, and then derandomizing the algorithm by brute-forcing all possible parameters (seeds) of the hash function. This technique is usually used to exhaustively search a sample space and making the algorithm deterministic (e.g. randomized graph algorithms)

Where randomness helps
When the model of computation is restricted to Turing machines, it is currently an open question whether the ability to make random choices allows some problems to be solved in polynomial time that cannot be solved in polynomial time without this ability; this is the question of whether P = BPP. However, in other contexts, there are specific examples of problems where randomization yields strict improvements.
 * Based on the initial motivating example: given an exponentially long string of 2k characters, half a's and half b's, a random-access machine requires 2k−1 lookups in the worst-case to find the index of an a; if it is permitted to make random choices, it can solve this problem in an expected polynomial number of lookups.
 * The natural way of carrying out a numerical computation in embedded systems or cyber-physical systems is to provide a result that approximates the correct one with high probability (or Probably Approximately Correct Computation (PACC)). The hard problem associated with the evaluation of the discrepancy loss between the approximated and the correct computation can be effectively addressed by resorting to randomization
 * In communication complexity, the equality of two strings can be verified to some reliability using $$\log n$$ bits of communication with a randomized protocol. Any deterministic protocol requires $$\Theta(n)$$ bits if defending against a strong opponent.
 * The volume of a convex body can be estimated by a randomized algorithm to arbitrary precision in polynomial time. Bárány and Füredi showed that no deterministic algorithm can do the same. This is true unconditionally, i.e. without relying on any complexity-theoretic assumptions, assuming the convex body can be queried only as a black box.
 * A more complexity-theoretic example of a place where randomness appears to help is the class IP. IP consists of all languages that can be accepted (with high probability) by a polynomially long interaction between an all-powerful prover and a verifier that implements a BPP algorithm. IP = PSPACE. However, if it is required that the verifier be deterministic, then IP = NP.
 * In a chemical reaction network (a finite set of reactions like A+B → 2C + D operating on a finite number of molecules), the ability to ever reach a given target state from an initial state is decidable, while even approximating the probability of ever reaching a given target state (using the standard concentration-based probability for which reaction will occur next) is undecidable. More specifically, a limited Turing machine  can be simulated with arbitrarily high probability of running correctly for all time, only if a random chemical reaction network is used. With a simple nondeterministic chemical reaction network (any possible reaction can happen next), the computational power is limited to primitive recursive functions.

title: Randomized algorithm


text:
Nekromantix

The Nekromantix is a Danish-American psychobilly band founded in Copenhagen in 1989. Their lyrics are generally structured around monster and horror themes. A central icon of the band's image is founder and frontman Kim Nekroman's "coffinbass", a custom-built double bass with a body in the shape of a coffin and a headstock the shape of a cross. Nekroman has been the sole constant member of the band. The current lineup consists of guitarist Francisco Mesa and drummer Rene "Delamuerte" Garcia, known as a guitarist and singer of the Canadian band "The Brains".

The Nekromantix released five albums on various European record labels during their first decade, then crossed over to American audiences in the early 2000s by signing to Los Angeles–based Hellcat Records, through which they have released three albums since 2002. Their eighth studio album, What Happens in Hell, Stays in Hell, was released in August 2011.

Formation
The Nekromantix were formed in 1989 in Copenhagen by Kim Nekroman after he left the Danish Navy, in which he had been a submarine radio operator for eight years. Deciding to launch a new career in music, he initially played drums in a rockabilly band prior to the foundation of Nekromantix.

Learning to play the double bass and to sing, Nekroman set about forming a horror-themed psychobilly band with himself as the frontman. Initially consisting of Nekroman, guitarist Paolo Molinari and drummer Sebastian Jensen, the band took the name Nekromantix.

A centerpiece of the band's image was Nekroman's self-constructed "coffinbass", an upright bass in the shape of a coffin. The first of these was constructed using an actual child-sized coffin, but over the years he has constructed new models in order to achieve better acoustics and collapsibility for easier transportation. By the time of the band's first official recordings, Molinari had been replaced by Peter Sandorff.

After six months of practice and two local performances in Copenhagen at the Stengade 30 club, the Nekromantix appeared at large psychobilly festival in Hamburg, Germany. Their performance earned them a recording contract with Tombstone Records for their first album Hellbound. The band began touring Europe and built a name for themselves in the European psychobilly movement, which at the time was largely dominated by British acts. In 1991 the band released their second album Curse of the Coffin through Nervous Records and supported it with a music video for the title track which received some play on the MTV program Alternative Nation.

Lineup changes
In 1992 both Jensen and Sandorff left the band. They were replaced by guitarist Jan Daggry and drummer Tim Kristensen, who used the stage names Ian Dawn ("Dawn" being an English translation of the Danish name Daggry) and Grim Tim Handsome. This lineup recorded the album Brought Back to Life, released in 1994, which earned a Grammy Award nomination for "Best Heavy Metal Album".

Daggry then left the band and was replaced on tour first by Emil Oelund and then by Tormod Holm, until the band found new permanent guitarist Søren Munk Petersen. The Nekroman/Petersen/Kristensen lineup recorded 1996's Demons Are a Girl's Best Friend. During this time the band toured most of Europe including Finland, Germany, the UK, the Netherlands, Belgium, Sweden and France, and also toured Japan. They began to achieve cult status in the United States, where their albums were as yet only available as imports.

At a 1996 festival in Cologne, Germany, Nekroman met fellow Copenhagen native Patricia Day, with whom he launched a new band called HorrorPops with himself on guitar and Day on double bass and lead vocals. The two would later marry, and their activity with HorrorPops put the Nekromantix on hold for several years, during which time Kristensen and Petersen both left the band.

International success
In 1997 Peter Sandorff returned to Nekromantix, bringing along his brother, Kristian, to play drums. In 1999 the band played a tenth-anniversary performance at Stengade 30 in Copenhagen, where they had performed their first shows after forming the band. This performance was recorded by Danish National Radio for a series of live shows and released the following year as the live album Undead 'n' Live. In 2000 the Nekromantix played their first performances in the United States, beginning with the first annual New York City "Psychobilly Rumble" and continuing with a nine-date tour of the west coast.

In February 2001 Nekroman gave a demo of new songs to Rancid singer/guitarist and Hellcat Records label owner Tim Armstrong, a longtime fan of the band. The Nekromantix soon signed to the Los Angeles–based Hellcat and released the 2002 album Return of the Loving Dead. Recorded in Denmark, it was the band's first album to be widely distributed in the U.S. and helped make them part of an emerging psychobilly movement on the west coast centered around the Hellcat label and spearheaded by bands such as Tiger Army. The album was supported with a music video for the song "Gargoyles Over Copenhagen" and the band toured the United States several times.

Move to the United States
Following the release of Return of the Loving Dead Nekroman relocated to Los Angeles, touring and recording two albums with the HorrorPops. The Sandorff brothers remained in Denmark, and recording of the Nekromantix' 2004 album Dead Girls Don't Cry was done almost entirely in Los Angeles, with only Peter Sandorff's backing vocals recorded in Copenhagen. In April 2005 the Sandorffs left the band leaving only Nekroman in band. To replace them Nekroman recruited guitarist Troy Russel (Tröy Deströy) and drummer James Mesa (Wasted James) of the California-based psychobilly band the Rezurex. That year the band's third album Brought Back to Life was remastered and re-released by Hellcat under the title Brought Back to Life Again.

Recent activity
In May 2006 Meza left the Nekromantix, later joining Tiger Army. He was replaced by Andrew Martinez (Andy DeMize) of The Rocketz. Life Is a Grave & I Dig It! was released in April 2007. In November 2007 the band announced Tröy Deströy's departure to focus on a solo career. Pete Belair of the Australian band Firebird was announced as the band's new guitarist and performed with them during their 2008 tours, living in Australia complicated things and Francisco Mesa, formerly of Barcelona-based Nightbreed and Ultimo Asalto, joined as a permanent guitarist.

On 11 January 2009, Martinez was killed in an automobile collision. The following month it was announced that Lux, formerly of Mystery Hangup and Sacred Storm, would be Martinez's replacement. The band's first female member, Lux stated that the Nekromantix would tour North America with Reverend Horton Heat during the summer and record a new album later in the year. The band's eighth studio album, What Happens in Hell, Stays in Hell, was released 2 August 2011. The band will support the album with a tour of the United States from July to September 2011. In April 2014, it was announced that Lux would depart from the band. It was later announced in June 2014 that Adam Guerrero, formerly of Rezurex, would replace Lux as the new Nekromantix drummer. In October 2017, Guerrero departed from the band and Lux returned to fill in for a few shows. In April 2018 it was announced that Rene "Delamuerte" Garcia, from The Brains and BAT! would be the new Nekromantix drummer.

Current members

 * Kim Nekroman – "coffinbass", lead vocals (1989–present)
 * Francisco Mesa – guitars, backing vocals (2008–present)
 * mike mata – drums (2019–present)

Past members

 * Paolo Molinari – guitars (1989)
 * Sebastian Jensen – drums (1989–1993)
 * Peter Sandorff – guitars, backing vocals (1989–1993, 1997–2005)
 * Ian Dawn (Jan Daggry) – guitars, backing vocals (1993–1994)
 * Emil Oelund – guitars (1994–1995)
 * Tormod Holm – guitars (1995)
 * Søren Munk Petersen – guitars, backing vocals (1995–1996)
 * Grim Tim Handsome (Tim Kristensen) – drums (1993–1996)
 * Kristian Sandorff – drums (1997–2005)
 * Wasted James (James Meza) – drums (2005–2006)
 * Tröy Deströy – guitars, backing vocals (2005–2007)
 * Pete Belair – guitars, backing vocals (2007–2008)
 * Andy DeMize (Andrew Martinez) – drums (2006–2009)
 * Lux – drums (2009–2014)
 * Adam "Mighty Mouse" Guerrero – drums (2014–2017)

Discography
The discography of the Nekromantix consists of eight studio albums, two live album, three singles and three music videos.

title: Nekromantix


text:
Army of the Shenandoah (Union)

The Army of the Shenandoah was a field army of the Union Army active during the American Civil War. First organized as the Department of the Shenandoah in 1861 and then disbanded in early 1862, the army became most effective after its recreation on August 1, 1864 under the command of Philip Sheridan. The army's actions during the Valley campaigns of 1864 rendered the Shenandoah Valley of Virginia unable to produce foodstuffs for the Confederate States Army, a condition which would hasten the conclusion of the American Civil War.

1861–2
Under the command of Major General Robert Patterson before the three-month enlistments of a majority of its troops expired, the Department of Pennsylvania operated as the lone element of Union Army in the Shenandoah Valley of Virginia. After achieving a tactical victory at the Battle of Hoke's Run on July 2 and contributing indirectly to the Union disaster at the First Battle of Bull Run on July 21, its unexpired regiments and commanders were absorbed into a new Department of the Shenandoah under the command of Major General Nathaniel P. Banks on July 25, 1861. Neither Patterson nor Banks referred to his commands as the Army of the Shenandoah in official correspondence, and when the Army of the Potomac adopted a Corps structure on March 18, 1862, Banks' command was redesignated as the "Fifth Corps."

1864
On May 21, 1864, Major General David Hunter was appointed to command the Department of West Virginia. Hunter designated the field forces of his department the "Army of the Shenandoah". Hunter was in command of the Army of the Shenandoah from May 21 to July 3 which consisted of two infantry divisions and two cavalry divisions. The First and Second Infantry Divisions were commanded by Brigadier Generals Jeremiah C. Sullivan and George Crook respectively. The First and Second Cavalry Divisions were commanded by Brigadier Generals Julius Stahel (succeeded by Alfred N. Duffie) and William W. Averell respectively. In May Crook's and Averell's divisions fought independently at the battle of Cloyd's Mountain. Hunter personally led Sullivan's and Stahel's divisions at the battle of Piedmont. All four divisions were joined for the battle of Lynchburg. On July 3, George Crook assumed command of both infantry divisions and designated this as a new field army named the Army of the Kanawha.

The force was next created by order of Ulysses S. Grant on August 1, 1864, in response to a raid by Jubal Early and his Confederate army of 15,000 on Washington, D.C., and especially his defeat of Lew Wallace at the Battle of Monocacy Junction. The new Army of the Shenandoah was composed of the Union VI Corps (commanded by Horatio G. Wright), XIX Corps (William H. Emory), and George Crook's Army of West Virginia (VIII Corps). It was placed under Sheridan's command with orders to repel Early, deal with Confederate guerillas, and press on into the Shenandoah Valley in Virginia.

Early, ever the cunning strategist, kept his force moving so as not to be trapped by Sheridan's vastly superior force. His raid had, if anything, a good deal of success for southern morale. Confederate General Robert E. Lee, coming to the conclusion that Early had done all that was practical, ordered Early to return two of his divisions to Richmond and remain to tie up Sheridan. Learning of this, Sheridan waited until Early weakened himself and then attacked at the Third Battle of Winchester on September 19 and then again at the Battle of Fisher's Hill on September 20–21. By the end of these battles, Early's force was effectively out of the war, and Sheridan proceeded with his secondary orders to destroy the ability of the Shenandoah Valley to produce foodstuffs for the Confederacy, torching farms and more than 2,000 mills.

Reinforced again in reaction to the threat of Sheridan's 31,000-man army, Early moved against Sheridan once more. After a decisive cavalry victory by Union forces under Brig. Gen. George Armstrong Custer at the Battle of Tom's Brook, Early's army launched a surprise attack against Sheridan at the Battle of Cedar Creek on October 19. Initially successful, the Confederates were repelled by a Union counterattack and the Valley was firmly under Union control.

Following those battles in the fall of 1864, the majority of the Army of the Shenandoah was detached to Grant at Petersburg and to William Tecumseh Sherman in Georgia. Sheridan joined Grant for the Appomattox campaign where Sheridan commanded the Army of the Shenandoah, which included two divisions of cavalry commanded by Wesley Merritt. In late April 1865, command of the army then passed to Brig. Gen. A. T. A. Torbert until July 12, 1865, when the force was disbanded for the final time.

Commanders

 * April 27 – July 25, 1861: Major General Robert Patterson
 * July 25, 1861 – March 18, 1862: Major General Nathaniel P. Banks
 * 21 May – 3 July 1864: Major General David Hunter
 * August 7 – October 16, 1864: Major General Philip Sheridan
 * October 16–19, 1864: Major General Horatio G. Wright
 * October 19, 1864 – April 22, 1865: Major General Philip Sheridan
 * April 22 – July 12, 1865: Major General Alfred Thomas Torbert

Notable battles

 * July 2, 1861: Battle of Hoke's Run (Patterson)
 * May 25, 1862: First Battle of Winchester (Banks, Order of Battle)
 * September 19, 1864: Third Battle of Winchester (Sheridan, Order of Battle)
 * September 20 – September 21: Battle of Fisher's Hill (Sheridan)
 * October 9: Battle of Tom's Brook (Sheridan)
 * October 19: Battle of Cedar Creek (Wright, Sheridan, Order of Battle)
 * April, 1865: Appomattox Campaign (Merritt, Order of Battle)

title: Army of the Shenandoah (Union)


text:
Limiter

In electronics, a limiter is a circuit that allows signals below a specified input power or level to pass unaffected while attenuating (lowering) the peaks of stronger signals that exceed this threshold. Limiting is a type of dynamic range compression. Clipping is an extreme version of limiting.

Limiting is any process by which the amplitude of a signal is prevented from exceeding a predetermined value.

Limiters are common as a safety device in live sound and broadcast applications to prevent sudden volume peaks from occurring. Limiters are also used as protective features in some components of sound reinforcement systems (e.g., powered mixing boards and power amplifiers) and in some bass amplifiers, to prevent unwanted distortion or loudspeaker damage.

Types
Limiting can refer to a range of treatments designed to limit the maximum level of a signal. Treatments in order of decreasing severity range from clipping, in which a signal is passed through normally but sheared off when it would normally exceed a certain threshold; soft clipping which squashes peaks instead of shearing them; a hard limiter, a type of variable-gain audio level compression, in which the gain of an amplifier is changed very quickly to prevent the signal from going over a certain amplitude or a soft limiter which reduces maximum output through gain compression.

In aerospace and military
For military two-way radio sets and aircraft VHF voice telecommunications, the voice limiter is known as a vogad. It is designed to work with high levels of background noise near the microphone. One form operates by up-converting the audio signal to an ultrasonic frequency, hard limiting that signal, and then down converting the result. The frequency conversion uses image-cancelling heterodyning. The advantage of clipping the supersonic signal is that the odd harmonics produced will still be out-of-band when down converted. This is in contrast to standard hard limiting, as in an electric guitar fuzz box, where the harmonics are highly audible.This device ultimately gives a distinctive character to the voice communication, which despite being highly distorted, ensures spoken words remain clear.

In audio production
Bass instrument amplifiers and power amplifiers are more commonly equipped with limiter circuitry to prevent overloading the power amplifier and to protect speakers. Electric guitar amps do not usually have limiters.

PIN diodes can be used in limiter circuits to reflect the energy back to the source or clip the signal.

Mastering engineers often use limiting combined with make-up gain to increase the perceived loudness of an audio recording during the audio mastering process.

FM radio
An FM radio receiver usually has at least one stage of amplification that performs a limiting function. This stage provides a constant level of signal to the FM demodulator stage, reducing the effect of input signal level changes to the output. If two or more signals are received at the same time, a high-performance limiter stage can greatly reduce the effect of the weaker signals on the output. This is commonly referred to as the FM capture effect.

Generally, FM demodulators are not affected by amplitude variations, since the baseband is contained in the frequency deviations. Some detectors, including the ratio detector, inherently limit gain by the nature of the circuit design. In AM radio, the information is located in the amplitude variations, and distortion can occur due to spurious signals that could cause the baseband to be misrepresented.

In utilities
In Canada, while the cold weather rule is in affect, limiters are used to lower the capacity of houses of non-paying customers. The limiters allow enough power to run a furnace and a few lights. Tampering with the limiter is illegal.

title: Limiter


text: Talk:Server Message Block

title: Talk:Server Message Block


text:
Adventure Soft

Adventure Soft is a British video game developer and publisher established by Mike Woodroffe, initially as an importer and reseller of Adventure International games as Adventure International (UK), and later using the names Horror Soft, Adventuresoft UK and Headfirst Productions. The firm operates out of Sutton Coldfield, and is best known for the Simon the Sorcerer series of games.

Adventure International UK
Woodroffe, who owned a music shop in Birmingham, entered the software industry by opening a computer department within the store, Calisto Computers, importing American software which was otherwise unavailable in the UK. The success of many of the titles from Adventure International led to Woodroffe licensing the name from Scott Adams to form Adventure International (UK). The company employed Brian Howarth, the author of the Mysterious Adventures series of text adventures, to convert Adams' titles to run on microcomputers found in the United Kingdom market which were not currently supported.

By 1985, the release of games by Adventure International had slowed and the company began to write other games using the same system. The first and most successful of these was Gremlins – The Adventure (1985), written by Howarth and based on the film Gremlins. Adventure International UK also secured the rights to Howarth's Mysterious Adventures series from Channel 8 Software who had been taken over by Argus Press Software. Several of these games were licensed for release by Tynesoft, who also published Howarth and Woodroofe's Supergran: The Adventure, their first title to be published by a third party.

Further deals were signed, including a game based on the television series Robin of Sherwood, and the licence to produce games based on the Fighting Fantasy gamebooks by Steve Jackson and Ian Livingstone. The first Fighting Fantasy title released was Seas of Blood by Woodroffe and Howarth with Appointment with F.E.A.R. reported as the next conversion.

Adventuresoft UK
By 1986 Adventure International in the U.S. was bankrupt, leaving the UK company unable to continue trading under that name. A new company was formed, Adventuresoft UK, whose first title was their second Fighting Fantasy conversion, Rebel Planet, written by Stefan Ufnowski and published by U.S. Gold. U.S. Gold published further Adventuresoft titles over the next few years, including Ufnowski's Kayleth (based on story in Asimov's Science Fiction magazine, Temple of Terror by Woodroffe and Masters of the Universe: The Super Adventure. In 1988, Adventuresoft also worked with U.S. Gold to produce Heroes of the Lance based on the first Dragonlance campaign module for the Dungeons & Dragons role-playing game. Adventuresoft also created Blizzard Pass, the first game by Alan Cox  which was bundled with the ZX Spectrum +2 by some retailers. Cox later developed parts of the game into AberMUD.

Horror Soft
With the rise of more powerful systems like the Amiga and a growing disinterest in text-focused games, Woodroffe created Horror Soft to actively exploit the graphical and multimedia angle of the games.

Their first 16-bit game, Personal Nightmare, features music, animation and some mouse control coupled with a traditional text-based game system. It was followed by two games based around Elvira, Mistress of the Dark: Elvira: Mistress of the Dark and Elvira II: The Jaws of Cerberus, and Waxworks, all of which moved away from keyboard command input to mouse-driven gaming with animation and music from Jezz Woodroffe (a session musician with Robert Plant, Black Sabbath and other bands).

Adventure Soft Publishing
Adventuresoft was remodelled as Adventure Soft Publishing in 1992, although the company wasn't incorporated until 1998 and the company continued to be referred to as Adventuresoft in the gaming press. The company continuing the trend towards more graphical gaming with the release of Simon the Sorcerer, their most successful game. The game uses a new engine, the "Adventure Graphic Operating System", written by Alan Cox and based on AberMUD. It also includes voice acting from Roger Blake and Chris Barrie as Simon who played Arnold Rimmer in Red Dwarf. Barrie was replaced by Brian Bowles for the sequel when Barrie’s fees became unaffordable. In 1997 Adventure Soft released The Feeble Files, with the lead character being voiced by Robert Llewellyn who played Kryten also in Red Dwarf.

Headfirst Productions
In 1998 Mike and Simon Woodroffe set up Headfirst Productions to allow them to develop non-adventure style games. The company released Simon the Sorcerer 3D in 2002 and Call of Cthulhu: Dark Corners of the Earth in 2005. The intellectual property rights to Simon the Sorcerer remained with Adventure Soft, so were unaffected when Headfirst first went into administration the following year.

title: Adventure Soft


text:
John Smith House, Southwark

John Smith House is the former Labour Party headquarters at 144–152 Walworth Road in south London. The party first occupied the building in 1980, vacating its former headquarters at Transport House.

It was renamed in memory of John Smith, the former leader of the Labour Party who died in office in May 1994, less than two years after becoming leader.

History
Between 1995 and 1997, the Labour Party moved most of its functions from John Smith House to Millbank Tower, which became its official headquarters at the end of 1997, shortly after it formed a new government after winning the general election. The Labour Party Archive and Library moved in 1990 from Walworth Road to join the People's History Museum. John Smith House was formerly used by Southwark Local Education Authority before becoming the party headquarters.

Planning permission was granted in 2010 to turn it into the Safestay budget hotel, which opened in 2012.

Surrounds
Next door to John Smith House was the Confederation of Shipbuilding and Engineering Unions.

title: John Smith House, Southwark


text:
Guntis Ulmanis

Guntis Ulmanis (born 13 September 1939) is a Latvian politician and the fifth President of Latvia from 1993 to 1999.

Early life
Guntis Ulmanis was born in Riga on 13 September 1939. His great uncle Kārlis Ulmanis was one of the most prominent Latvian politicians during the interwar period, in 1934 he estalished authoritarian regime and subsequently adopted title of the president of Latvia. In 1941 following the Soviet occupation, Guntis Ulmanis and his family were deported to Krasnoyarsk Krai, Siberia, Russian SFSR.

In 1946, they returned to Latvia, but were not allowed to settle in Riga, so they stayed at Ēdole in the Kuldīga area of the Latvian SSR.

In 1949, the remainder of the Ulmanis family was supposed to be deported in the upcoming March deportation, but Guntis Ulmanis was able to avoid that fate, as his mother remarried and his surname was changed to Rumpītis. In 1955 upon receiving his first passport Ulmanis chose to use his birth surname.

They then moved to Jūrmala, where he attended school. After graduating, he entered the economic faculty of the Latvian State University.

Career in Latvia
After completing his studies in the university in 1963, he was drafted into the Soviet army, where he served for two years. In 1965 he joined the Communist Party of the Soviet Union. He began working as an economist at a construction site and was later promoted to tram and trolleybus administrator in Riga.

He was then advanced to the position of deputy chairman of the planning committee of the Riga Executive Committee (city government). However, his family ties with President Ulmanis were discovered and he was sacked in 1971.

He then worked at lower positions in the Riga municipal service system. For some time he worked as a teacher of construction economics at the Riga Polytechnical Institute and of economic planning at the Latvian State University.

In 1989, during the Singing Revolution, Guntis Rumpītis quit the Communist Party and returned to using his original surname – Ulmanis. In 1992, he was appointed Council Member of the National Bank of Latvia.

He also joined the Latvian Farmers' Union the same year. In 1993 the Saeima elected him as the 5th President of Latvia (the first since the full restoration of independence in 1991). In the first round, he finished third (after Gunārs Meierovics and Aivars Jerumanis), but won in the runoff as Meierovics quit the race.

Presidency
As President, Guntis Ulmanis focused on foreign policy, building relations with international and regional organizations, as well as other countries. A major achievement was the conclusion of the Latvian-Russian treaty on the withdrawal of Russian Armed Forces from Latvia.

During his presidency, Latvia joined the Council of Europe and sent its application to the European Union. He announced a moratorium on the death penalty, in accordance with the norms of the European Council.

In 1996, he was re-elected in the first round of elections, defeating Saeima speaker Ilga Kreituse, Imants Liepa and former Communist Party chairman Alfrēds Rubiks, who was in jail at the time.

In 1998 President Ulmanis actively supported amendments to the Citizenship law, that would allow all people born after 21 August 1991 to obtain citizenship and would eliminate so-called "naturalization limits" (in which only a limited number of non-citizenship could receive citizenship within a given year). However, he was forced to send the law project on a referendum, after 36 nationalistic deputies, opposed to the amendment petitioned him to do so. He then actively and successfully campaigned for the adoption of the amendments by the population.

Retirement and subsequent return to politics
Guntis Ulmanis' term finished in 1999 and he was succeeded by Vaira Vīķe-Freiberga. He retired from politics but became a social activist, founding the Guntis Ulmanis Fund, organizing the 2006 IIHF World Championship in Riga and heading the Riga Castle reconstruction council.

2010 marked a return to big politics for Guntis Ulmanis. He became the chairman of the newly created party alliance For a Good Latvia, which was composed of the People's Party and Latvia's First Party/Latvian Way. The alliance won only 8 seats in the October 2010 parliamentary election.

However, Ulmanis became a Saeima deputy. In 2011 he announced he did not want to run for another term as a deputy in the 2011 election. He, therefore, ceased being a deputy in November 2011, after the 11th Saeima was inaugurated.

Personal life
Guntis Ulmanis has been married to Aina Ulmane (maiden name Štelce) since 1962. They have two children: Guntra (b. 1963) and Alvils (b. 1966) and three grandchildren. In his spare time, Ulmanis enjoys reading history books and memoirs, playing tennis, basketball and volleyball. He is known to also spend summers in his home in Smārde Parish.

He has written two autobiographies: No tevis jau neprasa daudz (Not much is required from you yet) (1995) and Mans prezidenta laiks (My time as President) (1999).

He is a member of the international advisory council of the Victims of Communism Memorial Foundation.

On 21 September 2015 he became CEO of the hockey club Dinamo Riga after the previous CEO Aigars Kalvītis stepped down to take a CEO position in the company Latvijas Gāze.

National honours

 * 🇱🇻 Latvia:
 * LVA Order of the Three Stars - Commander BAR.png Commander Grand Cross with Chain of the Order of the Three Stars

Foreign honours

 * 🇩🇰 Denmark:
 * Order of the Elephant Ribbon bar.svg Knight of the Order of the Elephant (18 March 1997) - See Latvian Knights of the Order of the Elephant
 * 🇪🇪 Estonia:
 * EST Order of the Cross of Terra Mariana - 1st Class BAR.svg Collar of the Order of the Cross of Terra Mariana (23 October 1996)
 * 🇩🇪 Germany:
 * GER Bundesverdienstkreuz 9 Sond des Grosskreuzes.svg Grand Cross Special Class of the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany
 * 🇮🇸 Iceland:
 * ISL Icelandic Order of the Falcon - Grand Cross BAR.png Knight Grand Cross of the Order of the Falcon (8 June 1998)
 * 🇳🇴 Norway:
 * St Olavs Orden storkors stripe.svg Knight Grand Cross of the Order of St. Olav
 * 🇵🇱 Poland:
 * POL Order Orła Białego BAR.svg Order of the White Eagle

title: Guntis Ulmanis


text:
Debian Free Software Guidelines

The Debian Free Software Guidelines (DFSG) is a set of guidelines that the Debian Project uses to determine whether a software license is a free software license, which in turn is used to determine whether a piece of software can be included in Debian. The DFSG is part of the Debian Social Contract.

The guidelines

 * 1) Free redistribution.
 * 2) Inclusion of source code.
 * 3) Allowing for modifications and derived works.
 * 4) Integrity of the author's source code (as a compromise).
 * 5) No discrimination against persons or groups.
 * 6) No discrimination against fields of endeavor, like commercial use.
 * 7) The license needs to apply to all to whom the program is redistributed.
 * 8) License must not be specific to a product.
 * 9) License must not restrict other software.
 * 10) Example licenses: The GNU GPL, BSD, and Artistic licenses are examples of licenses considered free.

History
The DFSG was first published together with the first version of the Debian Social Contract in July 1997. The primary author was Bruce Perens, with input from the Debian developers during a month-long discussion on a private mailing list, as part of the larger Debian Social Contract. Perens was copied to an email discussion between Ean Schuessler (then of Debian) and Donnie Barnes of Red Hat, in which Schuessler accused Red Hat of never elucidating its social contract with the Linux community. Perens realized that Debian did not have any formal social contract either, and immediately started creating one.

The Open Source Definition was created by re-titling the exact text of the DFSG soon afterwards. DFSG was preceded by Free Software Foundation's Free Software Definition, which then defined three freedoms of Free Software (Freedom Zero was added later), but this text was not used in the creation of the DFSG. Once the DFSG became the Open Source Definition, Richard Stallman saw the need to differentiate free software from open source and promoted the Free Software Definition. Published versions of FSF's Free Software Definition existed as early as 1986, having been published in the first edition of the (now defunct) GNU's Bulletin. The core of the Free Software Definition was the (then) Three Freedoms, which preceded the drafting and promulgation of the DFSG, were unknown to its authors.

In November 1998, Ian Jackson and others proposed several changes in a draft versioned 1.4, but the changes were never made official. Jackson stated that the problems were "loose wording" and the patch clause.

, the document has never been revised. Nevertheless, there were changes made to the Social Contract which were considered to affect the parts of the distribution covered by the DFSG.

The Debian General Resolution 2004-003, titled "Editorial amendments to the social contract", modified the Social Contract. The proposer Andrew Suffield stated:

 * "The rule is 'this resolution only changes the letter of the law, not the spirit'. Mostly it changes the wording of the social contract to better reflect what it is supposed to mean, and this is mostly in light of issues that were not considered when it was originally written."

However, the change of the sentence "We promise to keep the Debian GNU/Linux Distribution entirely free software" into "We promise that the Debian system and all its components will be free" resulted in the release manager, Anthony Towns, making a practical change:

 * "As [SC #1] is no longer limited to 'software', and as this decision was made by developers after and during discussion of how we should consider non-software content such as documentation and firmware, I don't believe I can justify the policy decisions to exempt documentation, firmware, or content any longer, as the Social Contract has been amended to cover all these areas."

This prompted another General Resolution, 2004–004, in which the developers voted overwhelmingly against immediate action, and decided to postpone those changes until the next release (whose development started a year later, in June 2005).

Software
Most discussions about the DFSG happen on the debian-legal mailing list. When a Debian Developer first uploads a package for inclusion in Debian, the ftpmaster team checks the software licenses and determines whether they are in accordance with the social contract. The team sometimes confers with the debian-legal list in difficult cases.

Non-"software" content
The DFSG is focused on software, but the word itself is unclear—some apply it to everything that can be expressed as a stream of bits, while a minority considers it to refer to just computer programs. Also, the existence of PostScript, executable scripts, sourced documents, etc., greatly muddies the second definition. Thus, to break the confusion, in June 2004 the Debian project decided to explicitly apply the same principles to software documentation, multimedia data and other content. The non-program content of Debian began to comply with the DFSG more strictly in Debian 4.0 (released in April 2007) and subsequent releases.

GFDL
Much documentation written by the GNU Project, the Linux Documentation Project and others licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License contain invariant sections, which do not comply with the DFSG. This assertion is the end result of a long discussion and the General Resolution 2006-001.

Due to the GFDL invariant sections, content under this license must be separately contained in an additional "non-free" repository which is not officially considered part of Debian.

Multimedia files
It can be sometimes hard to define what constitutes the "source" for multimedia files, such as whether an uncompressed image file is the source of a compressed image and whether the 3D model before ray tracing is the source for its resulting image.

debian-legal tests for DFSG compliance
The debian-legal mailing list subscribers have created some tests to check whether a license violates the DFSG. The common tests (as described in the draft DFSG FAQ) are the following:
 * "The Desert Island test". Imagine a castaway on a desert island with a solar-powered computer. This would make it impossible to fulfill any requirement to make changes publicly available or to send patches to some particular place. This holds even if such requirements are only upon request, as the castaway might be able to receive messages but be unable to send them. To be free, software must be modifiable by this unfortunate castaway, who must also be able to legally share modifications with friends on the island.
 * "The Dissident test". Consider a dissident in a totalitarian state who wishes to share a modified bit of software with fellow dissidents, but does not wish to reveal the identity of the modifier, or directly reveal the modifications themselves, or even possession of the program, to the government. Any requirement for sending source modifications to anyone other than the recipient of the modified binary—in fact, any forced distribution at all, beyond giving source to those who receive a copy of the binary—would put the dissident in danger. For Debian to consider software free it must not require any such excess distribution.
 * "The Tentacles of Evil test". Imagine that the author is hired by a large evil corporation and, now in their thrall, attempts to do the worst to the users of the program: to make their lives miserable, to make them stop using the program, to expose them to legal liability, to make the program non-free, to discover their secrets, etc. The same can happen to a corporation bought out by a larger corporation bent on destroying free software in order to maintain its monopoly and extend its evil empire. To be free, the license cannot allow even the author to take away the required freedoms.

title: Debian Free Software Guidelines


text:
Talk:Manufacturing

Pedantic sentence
I encounter these sentences commonly, and I have a fairly well-developed sense that most casual readers treat this as two scoops of buzzword-compatible word cloud, not even bothering to mentally construct a valid parse tree.

Such goods may be sold to other manufacturers for the production of other more complex products (such as aircraft, household appliances, furniture, sports equipment or automobiles), or distributed via the tertiary industry to end users and consumers (usually through wholesalers, who in turn sell to retailers, who then sell them to individual customers).

— MaxEnt 00:08, 14 September 2021 (UTC)

Error in the article - which I have corrected. China, not the United States, has the largest manufacturing production.
Since 2014 China, not the United States, has had the largest manufacturing production. However, the article listed the United States above China in the top five manufacturing countries. I have corrected the error.2A02:C7E:1CC3:8A00:50D4:6471:B243:9DE5 (talk) 19:56, 14 October 2021 (UTC) The five "Largest Manufacturers" also lists Germany above Japan - in reality Japan has larger manufacturing output than Germany. Overall the section, which says it is from a study by Deloittes, is just a mess - the whole section should be deleted. Chinese manufacturing is not smaller than the United States and Japanese manufacturing production is not smaller than that of Germany - and the United States and Germany are certainly not "more competitive" than China and Japan. The whole section is wildly misleading for general readers.2A02:C7E:1CC3:8A00:50D4:6471:B243:9DE5 (talk) 20:04, 14 October 2021 (UTC)

The figures are out of date. Badly need updating.
The manufacturing output figures given for the United States are from 2019 - the figures for 2020 must be out by now. And the figures for Japan are from 2018 - which is absurd given it is now 2022.2A02:C7E:1CA8:CE00:1896:E118:CC65:53AD (talk) 20:53, 12 February 2022 (UTC)

Add the EU?
Can we add the EU as a whole to the list for comparison? Newme (talk) 07:35, 29 January 2024 (UTC)

Manufacturing output figures still badly out of date.
It is now May 2024 and the article lists American manufacturing output for 2021 - the figures for some other countries are also out of date, but for major nations the American figures are the most out of date. 2A02:C7C:E183:AC00:60E1:9BC9:93D1:5E30 (talk) 21:11, 12 May 2024 (UTC)

 * Hello, this article is not protected so you are completely welcome to find newer sources and update it! You may want to use Find your source (which I highly recommend) to find these newer sources. Lakwat (talk) 17:22, 13 May 2024 (UTC)

Wiki Education assignment: Information Literacy and Scholarly Discourse
— Assignment last updated by Leslie.dicharry (talk) 22:20, 23 June 2024 (UTC)

title: Talk:Manufacturing


text:
Garter (disambiguation)

A garter is an article of clothing used to hold up stockings.

Garter may also refer to:

 * Garter snake (Thamnophis), a genus of snakes endemic to North and Central America
 * Sleeve garter, worn on the sleeve of a shirt
 * Garter Principal King of Arms, the principal heraldic officer in the United Kingdom

title: Garter (disambiguation)


text:
James Hay, 1st Earl of Carlisle

James Hay, 1st Earl of Carlisle KB (c. 1580 – March 1636) was a Scottish courtier and English nobleman.

Life
He was the son of Sir James Hay of Fingask, second son of Peter Hay of Megginch (a branch member of Hay of Leys, a younger branch of the Erroll family) and his wife Margaret, daughter of Crichton of Ruthven. His mother was Margaret Murray, cousin of George Hay, afterwards 1st Earl of Kinnoull.

His aunts married well and had two well regarded uncles. His uncle Peter Hay of Megginch married Margaret Ogilvie, daughter of Sir Patrick Ogilvie of Inch, and are the ancestors of the later Earls of Kinnoull via their son, his first cousin Peter of Kirklands of Megginch. His uncle Edmund Hay was Professor of Scots Law at Douay.

He was knighted and taken into favour by James VI of Scotland, brought into England in 1603, treated as a "prime favourite" and made a gentleman of the bedchamber. In 1604, he was sent on a mission to France and pleaded for the Huguenots, which annoyed Henry IV of France and caused a substantial reduction of the present made to the English envoy. On 21 June 1606, he was created by patent a baron for life with precedence next to the barons, but without a place or voice in Parliament, no doubt to render his advancement less unpalatable to the English lords.

The king bestowed on him numerous grants, paid his debts, and secured for him a rich bride in the person of Honora Denny, only daughter and heir of Edward, Lord Denny. Their marriage was celebrated by Lord Hay's Masque, staged on 6 January 1607. On 9 February 1608 he performed in the masque The Hue and Cry After Cupid at Whitehall Palace as a sign of the zodiac, to celebrate the wedding of John Ramsay, Viscount Haddington to Elizabeth Radclyffe. In 1610 he was made a Knight of the Bath, and in 1613 master of the wardrobe, while in 1615 he was created Lord Hay of Sawley, and took his seat in the House of Lords.

Honora, Lady Hay was favourite of Anne of Denmark and they enjoyed the company of a Venetian diplomat and musician Giulio Muscorno. Muscorno quarrelled with the ambassador Antonio Foscarini and it was said that the queen and Lady Hay promoted Muscorno's cause. Honora, Lady Hay died in 1614 and was buried on 16 August at Waltham Abbey.

Hay was sent to France in 1616 to negotiate the marriage of Princess Christina with Prince Charles. Before he left London news arrived that the French fashion in clothing had changed and his outfits would have to be remade. Lady Haddington made a joke about his companions, that there were three mignards; himself, Sir Henry Rich and Sir George Goring, three dancers; Sir Gilbert Hawten, John Auchmoutie, and Abercromby, and three fools or buffoons; Sir Thomas German, Sir Ralph Shelton, and Sir Thomas Badger. On his return, being now a widower, he was made a Privy Councillor.

In February 1617 he presented a masque by Ben Jonson, Lovers Made Men, to the French ambassador Baron de Tour at his house in London. The performance was staged by the Countess of Bedford and said to have cost £2200. Later that year, he married Lady Lucy Percy (1599–1660), daughter of Henry Percy, 9th Earl of Northumberland (the famous "Wizard Earl"), by his wife Dorothy Devereux.

In 1618 he resigned the mastership of the wardrobe for a large sum in compensation. He was created Viscount Doncaster, and in February 1619 was despatched on a mission to Germany, where during the beginning Thirty Years' War he identified himself with the cause of the "Winter King", Elector Frederick V of the Palatinate, and urged James to make war in his support. In 1621 and 1622 he was sent to France to obtain peace for the Huguenots from Louis XIII, in which he was unsuccessful, and in September 1622 was created Earl of Carlisle.

Next year he went to Paris on the occasion of Prince Charles's journey to Madrid, and again in 1624 to join Henry Rich, afterwards Lord Holland, in negotiating the prince's marriage with Henrietta Maria, when he advised James without success to resist Richelieu's demands on the subject of religious toleration. In 1624 he was made a knight of the Order of the Garter. Charles's marriage in 1625 was by proxy, so the wedding contract was signed by Carlisle and Holland. The king's representative at the actual wedding was the duke of Chevreuse, yet Carlisle and Holland acted as witnesses.

Carlisle became gentleman of the bedchamber to King Charles I after his accession. In 1628, after the failure of the expedition to Rhe, he was sent to make a diversion against Cardinal Richelieu in Lorraine and Piedmont; he counselled peace with Spain and the vigorous prosecution of the war with France, but on his return home found his advice neglected. He took no further part in public life, and died in March 1636.

Carlisle was a man of good sense and of accommodating temper, with some diplomatic ability. His extravagance and lavish expenditure, his double suppers and costly entertainments, were the theme of satirists and wonder of society, and his debts were said at his death to amount to more than £80,000. A lavish banquet for the French ambassador in 1621 at Essex House involved sweetmeats costing £500 and ambergris used in cooking costing £300, and the total bill was £3,300.

Clarendon said he left a reputation of a very fine gentleman and a most accomplished courtier, and after having spent, in a very jovial life, above £400,000, which upon a strict computation he received from the crown, he left not a house or acre of land to be remembered by.

Colonial proprietor
Hay by 1612 was a director of the Virginia Company. He was a patentee and councillor of the plantation of New England, and showed great interest in the colonies.

Carlise also had an interest in the Caribbean. There James Ley, 1st Earl of Marlborough was a rival, who had to be bought off. Another rival was the Earl of Montgomery. On 2 July 1627 Carlisle obtained from the king a grant of all the Caribbean Islands, including Barbados, this being a confirmation of a former concession given by James I. A colonial plantation venture on Barbados was led in 1628 by Marmaduke Roydon, a prominent City of London merchant and one of Carlisle's major creditors.

Family
Hay's first wife was Honoria Denny. His second wife, Lucy Hay, Countess of Carlisle, was involved in many conspiracies, or allegations thereof, during the English Civil War.

The first earl was succeeded by James, his only surviving son by his first wife. James married Margaret Russell, third daughter of Francis Russell, 4th Earl of Bedford, but James died without issue on 30 October 1660. At his death, the peerage became extinct in the Hay family.

title: James Hay, 1st Earl of Carlisle


text:
Talk:Zemsky Sobor

The ending "iy" doesn't sound right. Shall we move it to Zemsky Sobor (currently a redirect)? BTW, it should definitely be moved, since the second letter must be capitalized as well. Mikkalai
 * Seconded.--Ezhiki 03:58, Jun 12, 2004 (UTC)

title: Talk:Zemsky Sobor