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Culture of Mongolia

The culture of Mongolia has been shaped by the country's nomadic tradition and its position at the crossroads of various empires and civilizations. Mongolian culture is influenced by the cultures of the Mongolic, Turkic, and East Asian peoples, as well as by the country's geography and its history of political and economic interactions with other nations.

One of the most distinctive aspects of Mongolian culture is its nomadic pastoral economy, which has shaped the traditional way of life for the Mongols for centuries. The nomadic lifestyle is centered around the family and the community, and involves the herding of 5 main animals including sheep, goat, horse, cow, camel and some yaks. This way of life has had a significant impact on Mongolian culture, influencing everything from the country's social relationships and family structures to its art, music, and literature.

Mongolian culture is also well known for its traditional arts, which include music, dance, and literature. The country's music and dance traditions are closely connected to its nomadic past and are an important part of its cultural heritage. Mongolian literature, on the other hand, has a long and varied history, and includes both oral and written traditions.

Mongolian culture is also known for its distinctive architectural style, which reflects the country's nomadic tradition and its harsh weather during the winter months and rugged landscape. Mongolian homes or known as "ger" circular in shape and are constructed using a variety of materials including felt and wooden parts. The interior of a traditional Mongolian "ger" is portable and can be easily dismantled and reassembled, making them well-suited to the nomadic lifestyle.

In addition to its traditional architecture, Mongolian culture is also known for its handicrafts and folk art. Mongolian folk art includes a wide range of crafts and decorative arts, such as woodcarving, metalworking, embroidery, and weaving. These crafts are often passed down from generation to generation and are an important part of the country's cultural heritage. Mongolian handicrafts and folk art are often sold as souvenirs to tourists and are an important source of income for many Mongolian families.

Mongolian culture is also strongly influenced by its equestrian and wrestling traditions, which have played a central role in the country's history and continue to be an important part of its cultural identity today. In addition to these cultural traditions, Mongolia is home to a number of festivals and celebrations that reflect the country's rich cultural heritage, including the Naadam Festival and Tsagaan Sar, which is a national holidays that celebrates Mongolian culture and history.

Clothing
Mongolian traditional clothing has changed little since the days of the empire because it is supremely well-adapted to the conditions of life on the steppe and the daily activities of pastoral nomads. However, there have been some changes in styles which distinguish modern Mongolian dress from historic costume. The deel, or kaftan, is the Mongolian traditional garment worn on workdays and special days. It is a long, loose gown cut in one piece with the sleeves; it has a high collar and widely overlaps at the front. The deel is girdled with a sash. Mongolian deels always close on the wearer's right and traditionally have five fastenings. Modern deels often have decoratively cut overflaps, small round necklines, and sometimes contain a Mandarin collar.

Depictions of Mongols during the time of the empire, however, show deels with more open necklines, no collars, and very simply cut overlaps, similar to the deels still worn by lamas in modern Mongolia. In addition to the deel, men and women might wear loose trousers beneath, and men may have worn skirts during the later Buddhist period, and women might wear underskirts, but in fact it appears on some Mongol paintings women wore wide trousers gathered at ankle, similar to shalwar or Turkish trousers. Skirts of the same style are still worn in part of Mongolia and China today; they have plain front and back panels with closely pleated side panels. Paintings of Mongols from Persian and Chinese sources depict men, and often women, wearing their hair in braids. The hair would be divided into two pigtails, each of which would be divided into three braids. The ends of the braids would then be looped up and bound to the top of the braid behind the ears. Men shaved the tops and sides of their heads, usually leaving only a short "forelock" in front and the long hair behind. The famous bogtag headdress worn by women seems to have been restricted to married women of very high rank.

Each ethnic group living in Mongolia has its own deel design distinguished by cut, color, and trimming. Before the revolution, all social strata in Mongolia had their own manner of dressing. Livestock breeders, for example, wore plain deels, which served them both summer and winter. The priests wore yellow deels with a cape or khimj thrown over it. Secular feudal lords put on smart hats and silk waistcoats.

Cuisine

Traditional Mongolian cuisine is primarily based on meat and dairies, with some regional variations. The most common meat local people consume is mutton, in the southern region local people also consume camel meat, and in the other parts mutton, beef, goat, horse and yak meat. Dairy products are made from mostly cow's milk and some from yak and goat including cheese, curds, creams and other dessert type dairies. There is also a traditional alcohol drink made from fermented mare's milk called (Airag). Popular dishes include buuz (meat dumpling), khuushuur (a meat pastry), khorkhog (a meat stew, usually a special meal for guests), and boortsog (a sweet biscuit). However, being a country wrapped in China and Russia for a long time, the current Mongolian cuisine has its evolution that adapted from both Chinese and Russian dishes that turned into Mongolian style including goulash (slow cooked meat with gravy and vegetables served with rice and mashed potato), tsuivan (stir fried noodle with meat, potatoes and carrots), various stir-fried dishes and soups with veggies and meat.

Cultural artifact controversy
On May 20, 2012, a rare skeleton of a Tarbosaurus bataar, also known as Tyrannosaurus bataar, was sold to an undisclosed buyer for $1,052,500 at an auction in New York City, United States, despite efforts by Mongolian President Elbegdorj Tsakhia to stop the sale. The Mongolian government is concerned about maintaining control over fossils and cultural relics while scientists worry about such items disappearing into private collections. A smuggler was convicted in a New York court in December 2012 for looting Tyrannosaurus bataar skeletons originating from Mongolia and transporting them to the United States for sale.

Ger (yurts)
The ger (yurts) is part of the Mongolian national identity. The Secret History of the Mongols mentions Genghis Khan as the leader of all people who live in felt tents, called gers, and even today a large share of Mongolia's population lives in ger, even in Ulaanbaatar. Ger also means "home" in a broad sense, and other words are derived from its word stem. For example, gerlekh is a verb that means ("to ger, to make a home" >) "to marry."

Traditional values
Among the topics that are mentioned from the oldest works of Mongolian literature to modern soft pop songs are love for mothers, parents and homesickness, a longing for the place where one grew up. Horses have always played an important role in daily life as well as in the arts. Mongolians have a lot of epic heroes from ancient times. Hospitality is so important in the steppes that it is traditionally taken for granted. The Mongolian word for hero, baatar, appears frequently in personal names, and even in the name of Mongolia's capital, Ulaanbaatar, means "red hero" (Улаанбаатар, Ulan Bator). The word was introduced in the Middle Ages to many non-Mongolic languages by conquering Mongol-speaking nomads, and now exists in different forms such as the Bulgarian language, Russian, Polish, Hungarian, Persian, North Indian and Georgian. Traditional words such as temuuleh signified a way to describe creativity and passion; temuuleh was used in several Mongol words and had the meaning: "to rush headlong, to be inspired or to have a sense of creative thought, and even to take a flight of fancy." It can be seen from Mongolian perspective as "the look in the eye of a horse that is racing where it wants to go, no matter what the rider wants."

Literature
The oldest completely passed down work of Mongolian literature is probably also the most well-known abroad: The Secret History of the Mongols. It does, however, contain passages of older poetry. Otherwise, few examples of Mongolian literature from the time of the Mongol Empire have come down in written form: fragments of a song about the mother and the area where one grew up were found in a soldier's grave at the Volga river in 1930, 25 manuscript and block print fragments were found in Turpan in 1902/03, Pyotr Kozlov brought some fragments from Khara-Khoto in 1909.

Other pieces of literature have long been orally traded and typically consist of alliterative verses, and are known as Üligers, literally meaning tales. They include the proverbs attributed to Genghis Khan, and the epics around the Khan's life, or the one about his two white horses. Other well-known epics deal with Geser Khan. Famous Oirad epics are Jangar, Khan Kharangui, Bum Erdene, and more.

Beginning from the 17th century, a number of chronicles have been preserved. They also contain long alliterative passages. Notable examples are the Altan Tovch by Luvsandanzan and another anonymous work of the same title, Sagang Sechen's Erdeniin Tovch, Lomi's History of the Borjigin clan (Mongol Borjigin ovgiin tüükh), and many more.

Already at the time of the Mongol empire, samples of Buddhist and Indian literature became known in Mongolia. Another wave of translations of Indian/Tibetan texts came with Mongolia's conversion to Tibetan Buddhism in the late 16th/ early 17th centuries. Beginning in the 1650s, copies of religious texts like the Kanjur and Tanjur and also of epics like Geser Khan began to appear as block prints. These prints were mainly produced in Beijing, but also in some Mongolian monasteries.

In Mongolia's time under the Qing dynasty, a number of Chinese novels were translated into Mongolian. At the same time, social discontent and an awakening Mongol nationalism lead to the creation of works like Injanash's historical novel Blue Chronicle or the stories about "Crazy" Shagdar.

Beginning with the works of Tseveen Jamsrano and other Buryats in the 1910s, many important works of Russian and European literature, or at least those that were not politically incorrect, were translated into Mongolian in the 20th century.

Religious theatre plays about the Tibetan hermit Milarepa were already performed in the 18th and 19th centuries. The oldest Mongolian drama known today, "Moon Cuckoo" (Saran khökhöö) was created by Danzanravjaa around 1831. The play got lost in the early 20th century, but in the meantime other theatre groups had developed. The first professional Mongolian theatre was founded in Ulaanbaatar in 1930. In the socialist period, every aimag got its own theatre. Since the 1990s, a number of small privately owned theatre companies, like Mask or Shine üe prodakshn have been founded. They heavily focus on light comedies and skits, and also regularly produce clips that are distributed on DVD or the internet.

Oral traditions and oral literature
The spoken storytelling traditions that led to Mongolian literature include "heroic epics, legends, tales, yörööl (the poetry of good wishes), and magtaal (the poetry of praise)".

Fine arts
Before the 20th century, most works of the fine arts in Mongolia had a religious function, and therefore Mongolian fine arts were heavily influenced by religious texts. Thangkas were usually painted or made in applique technique. Bronze sculptures usually showed Buddhist deities. A number of great works are attributed to the first Jebtsundamba Khutuktu, Zanabazar.

In the late 19th century, painters like "Marzan" Sharav turned to more realistic painting styles. Under the Mongolian People's Republic, socialist realism was the dominant painting style, however traditional thangka-like paintings dealing with secular, nationalist themes were also popular, a genre known as "Mongol zurag".

Among the first attempts to introduce modernism into the fine arts of Mongolia was the painting Ehiin setgel (Mother's love) created by Tsevegjav in the 1960s. The artist was purged as his work was censored.

All forms of fine arts flourished only after "Perestroika" in the late 1980s. Otgonbayar Ershuu is an important painter of the time, he was portrayed in the film "ZURAG" by Tobias Wulff.

Religion
Since ancient times Tengrism and Shamanism have been the dominant belief systems of the Mongols and still retain significant importance in their mythology. During the era of the Great Khans, Mongolia practiced freedom of worship which is still a defining element of the Mongol character. In the 17th century, Tibetan Buddhism became the dominant religion in Mongolia. Traditional Shamanism was, except in some remote regions, suppressed and marginalized. On the other hand, a number of shamanic practices, like ovoo worshiping, were incorporated into Buddhist liturgy.

Tibetan Buddhism is a ritualistic religion with a large number of deities. This inspired the creation of religious objects including images in paintings and sculptures.

After the Stalinist purges in the 1930s, both Buddhism and Shamanism were virtually outlawed in the Mongolian People's Republic. In Inner Mongolia, traditional religion was heavily affected by the Cultural Revolution. Since the 1990s, a number of Christian sects are trying to gain a foothold in Mongolia. About 4% of the Mongolian population is Muslim. Mongolians have also been known to live in some Latvian and Lithuanian regions because they are so close to the Russian border

Customs and superstitions
Mongolians traditionally were afraid of misfortunes and believe in good and evil omens. Misfortune might be attracted by talking about negative things or by persons that are often talked about. They might also be sent by some malicious shaman enraged by breaking some taboo, like stepping on a yurt's threshold, desecrating waters or mountains, etc.

The most endangered family members were children. They are sometimes given non-names like Nergui (without name) or Enebish (not this one), or boys would be dressed up as girls. "Since people of the steppe received only one name in life, its selection carried much symbolism, often on several levels; the name imparted to the child its character, fate and destiny." Before going out at night, young children's foreheads are sometimes painted with charcoal or soot to deceive evil spirits that this is not a child but a rabbit with black hair on the forehead.

When passing ovoos (cairns) on a journey, they are often circumambulated and sweets or the like are sacrificed to have a safe trip. Certain ovoos, especially those on high mountains, are sacrificed to obtain good weather, ward off misfortune, and the like.

For a child, the first big celebration is the first haircut, usually at an age between three and five. Birthdays were not celebrated in the past, but today, birthday parties are popular. Wedding ceremonies traditionally include the hand-over of a new yurt (ger) to the marrying couple. Deceased relatives were usually put to rest in the open, where the bodies were eaten by animals and birds. Nowadays, bodies are usually buried.

Festivities
The most important public festivals are the Naadam (game). The biggest one is held each year on July 11–13 in Ulaanbaatar, but there are also smaller ones on aimag and sum levels. A Naadam involves horse racing, wrestling, and archery competitions.

For families, the most important festival is Tsagaan Sar (white month/Lunar New Year), which is roughly equivalent to the Chinese New Year, but has nothing similar to Chinese New Year, and usually falls into January or February. Family members and friends visit each other, exchange presents - very popular presents for all opportunities are the khadag - and eat huge quantities of buuz.

Under the Soviet influence, New Year became a big holiday, and it is one of the biggest celebrations, comparable to Christmas in the West.

Music

Mongolia has a very old musical tradition. Key traditional elements are throat-singing, the Morin Khuur (horse headed fiddle) and other string instruments, and several types of songs. Mongolian melodies are typically characterized by pentatonic harmonies and long end notes.

In the 20th century, western style classical music has been introduced, and mixed with traditional elements by some composers. Later on the full palette of Pop and Rock music has also been adopted by younger musicians.

The Mongolian Waltz is a dance unique to Mongolia. Typically, one mounted horseman and one mounted horsewoman circle each other in time to a traditional song, which speeds up as it progresses. The three step gait of the horses, as they circle, gives the dance its name.

Cinema
In socialist times, movies were treated as a propaganda instrument by the Mongolian People's Revolutionary Party. The first topics were popular legends and revolutionary heroes like in Sükhbaatar. In the 1950s, the focus shifted to working class heroes, as in New Year. The 1970s saw many documentaries and everyday life stories as in The Clear Tamir.

After democratization, film makers turned to international partners for support, as in the Japanese-Mongolian co-production Genghis Khan. Independent directors like Dorjkhandyn Turmunkh and Byambasuren Davaa created movies that connected ancient traditions and mythology, and how they may relate to life in a modern world. Byambasuren's The Story of the Weeping Camel was nominated for an Academy Award as foreign documentary in 2005.

Games
Popular board games are chess and checkers. The chess figures are noyon (noble = king), bers (cp. bars "tiger" = queen), temee (camel = bishop), mori (horse = knight), tereg (cart = castle), khüü (boy = pawn). The rules used today are the same as in European chess, although there are differing versions called 'Mongolian Chess' (shatar) and 'Daur Chess'.

Dominoes are played widely. Indigenous card games existed in the 19th century but are now lost. One of the popular card games that is played is Muushig and various other modern card games are very popular among the younger generations such as 13 (similar to poker).

Sheep anklebones, or shagai, are used in games, as dice or as token. Not only they use anklebones as a token, but also they have number of games only using “shagai” itself. Rock, paper, scissors and morra-like games are also played. Wood knots and disentanglement puzzles have traditionally been popular.

Mongolian children were known to have played an ice game on frozen rivers that is similar to curling.

title: Culture of Mongolia


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Talk:Ströbeck

Old talk
The website of the villages says Otto II - however in 995 Otto III was emporer. So either the date or the name must be wrong.

WikiProject class rating
This article was automatically assessed because at least one WikiProject had rated the article as stub, and the rating on other projects was brought up to Stub class. BetacommandBot 08:02, 10 November 2007 (UTC)

Gunzelin and the like
It's a legend. There is no certainty about details of the fascinating Ströbeck chess history before 1500/1600. --DaQuirin (talk) 08:58, 12 May 2009 (UTC)

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title: Talk:Ströbeck


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Sura (river)

The Sura (Сура́, Сăр, Săr) is a river in Russia, a north-flowing right tributary of the Volga. Its mouth on the Volga is about halfway between Nizhny Novgorod and Kazan. It flows through Penza Oblast, Mordovia, Ulyanovsk Oblast, Chuvashia and Nizhny Novgorod Oblast. It is 841 km long, and has a drainage basin of 67500 km2. It is navigable for 394 km from the mouth.

The city of Penza, and smaller towns Alatyr, Shumerlya, Yadrin lie along the Sura. At the confluence with the Volga there is a settlement of Vasilsursk.

The principal affluents of the Sura are the Penza, the Pyana, and the Alatyr.

Names
Sura is an epithet of the gods in Sanskrit, as well as a divine drink. In addition, Sura is the Hindu goddess of wine. The exact translation from Sanskrit is "God". "Su" - "having power", "Ra" - "The Supreme Lord". "Suras" - "having power from the Supreme Lord" Sura - so named two rivers, in the area of Simbirsk and in the basin of the Northern Dvina and two cities in the Arkhangelsk and Penza regions have such names.

title: Sura (river)


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RAF Menwith Hill

Royal Air Force Menwith Hill (RAF Menwith Hill) is a Royal Air Force station near Harrogate, North Yorkshire, England, which provides communications and intelligence support services to the United Kingdom and the United States. The site contains an extensive satellite ground station and is a communications intercept and missile warning site. It has been described as the largest electronic monitoring station in the world.

RAF Menwith Hill is owned by the Ministry of Defence (MoD), but made available to the US Department of Defense (DoD) under the NATO Status of Forces Agreement 1951 and other, undisclosed agreements between the US and British governments. His Majesty's Government (HMG) is entitled to possession of the site and retains control over its use and its facilities, though the administration of the base is the responsibility of the US authorities, with support provided by around 400 staff from Government Communications Headquarters (GCHQ), in addition to United States Air Force (USAF) and US National Security Agency (NSA) personnel. In 2014, the number of American personnel was reduced as part of a streamlining of operations due to improvements in technology.

The site acts as a ground station for a number of satellites operated by the US National Reconnaissance Office, on behalf of the NSA, with antennas contained in numerous distinctive white radomes, locally referred to as "the golf balls", and is alleged to be an element of the ECHELON system.

The site is one of three main sites operated by the United States across the globe as a major satellite monitoring station and intelligence gathering location. The other two sites are located in America and Australia, having similar roles and working together with RAF Menwith Hill to develop knowledge around American, British and Australian interests. The Australian site is known as the Joint Defence Facility Pine Gap.

Establishment of station (1954–1959)
In 1954, the British War Office purchased 246 acre of land at Nessfield Farm, located approximately 7 km west of Harrogate, North Yorkshire. The area purchased soon increased to 562 acre and were made available by the British Government to the United States Department of Defense. The site was considered by the US as suitable for gathering signals intelligence from the northern parts of Western Europe and Eastern Europe, specifically the Soviet Union and its associated Warsaw Pact countries. The Yorkshire Dales' low level of background radio noise made it an especially good location for the task. The UK provided assurances to the US that the site would be available to them for at least 21 years.

Construction of the station on behalf of the United States Army Security Agency (USASA) began in April 1956. Building costs at the time were $6.8 million as well as a further $1.2 million for personnel housing. Initially named Field Station 8613, the site was renamed 13th USASA Field Station on 1 January 1957 and again renamed on 1 January 1959, as Menwith Hill Station. Due to adverse ground conditions and weather, there were delays to the construction programme, with the station finally becoming operational during June 1959.

Early years (1960–1966)
Operationally, Menwith Hill was assigned to the USASA Headquarters in Frankfurt, West Germany, whereas for logistical support it was attached to the US Air Force's Third Air Force, which at the time had its headquarters in the UK. Security at the station was provided by a US Army military police detachment and the British Air Ministry Constabulary. However, if the site was compromised during an invasion, three earth-covered bunkers contained ammunition and thermite charges which could be used to destroy classified equipment and material.

The station initially comprised a headquarters building, barracks, dependent housing and support facilities such as a cinema and social clubs. The operations building was located inside a secure compound, within a large antenna field, approximately 1.6 km from the main site. It was equipped with large high frequency (HF) directional rhombic antennas that could detect signals from around the globe. Over two-hundred Collins R-390A HF communications receivers were used to collect a vast range of signal in the HF band, including carrier waves, voice signals, and burst transmissions. Within the operations centre was the communications centre which was manned by cryptographers using deciphering equipment, however a large amount of the signals collected were encrypted before being forwarded for processing to the US National Security Agency's Fort Meade facility in Maryland.

Transfer to the National Security Agency (1966–1996)
In the 1960s, as a result of developments in digital technology and the increased use of satellites for signals intelligence, the specialist skills of engineers and technicians within the National Security Agency (NSA) and their contractors became increasingly important. Therefore, on 1 August 1966, with the agreement of the British Government, control of Menwith Hill Station was handed from the US Army to the NSA when it became a field element of the agency. The NSA expanded the station during the 1970s and 1980s, with the operations centre extended and new buildings erected. The first two radomes, designed to protect satellite receiver and transmission dishes (colloquially known as 'golf balls' and now synonymous with the station) were installed in 1974, at which point around 800 personnel were believed to work there.

In 1976, 21 years after the initial tenure arrangements were agreed with the US, the British Government renewed assurances that the site would continue to be available for a further 21 years.

Menwith Hill came to public attention in 1980 when British magazine the New Statesman published an article which suggested that the station was the world's largest phone tapping facility and highlighted the secrecy afforded to it by the British and US governments. Investigations found that during the early 1960s, Menwith Hill was integrated into the General Post Office's microwave relay network known as 'Backbone', via a high-capacity underground cable link to the Hunters Stones communications tower, located approximately 3 miles to the south of the station. It was alleged the link allowed mass interception of civilian telephone and telex communications between the United States, UK and Europe. At the time, eight radomes were now present at Menwith Hill, connecting it with other sites in the NSA's satellite communications network and alleged to allow the surveillance of communications in foreign countries. In response to the article the NSA said "We do radio relays - material comes in from a variety of places and is rerouted. It is a switching operation. We route it sometimes to the UK and sometimes to the US". The suggestion that national and international communications were monitored was denied.

A detachment of the US Army 704th Military Intelligence (MI) Brigade was established at Menwith Hill in 1985. In 1992, the detachment became A Company of the 743rd Military Intelligence Battalion, 704th MI Brigade.

The US Air Force's 6951st Electronic Security Squadron was formed at Menwith Hill on 1 May 1991. It was later re-designated as the 451st Intelligence Squadron on 1 October 1993.

In 1995, the US Army Intelligence and Security Command (INSCOM) became the executive agent for Menwith Hill on behalf of the National Security Agency. INSCOM transformed A Company, 743rd Military Intelligence Battalion into the 713th Military Intelligence Group. In 2000, the group added a second company and was re-designated as the 109th Military Intelligence Group.

RAF Menwith Hill (1996 to present)
On 19 February 1996, the station was renamed RAF Menwith Hill, an administrative change to align the base with other sites made available to the United States by the United Kingdom.

During a 1997 court case, British Telecom revealed that in 1975, its predecessor, the Post Office, installed two cables between Menwith Hill and a coaxial cable that connected to the microwave radio station at Hunters Stones, which was part of the long-distance telephone network. This connection was replaced in 1992 by a new high capacity fibre-optic cable. Later, two additional cables were added over which telephone and other communications could go to and from the base. These cables were capable of transmitting over 100,000 phone calls simultaneously.

On 1 October 2000, the 451st Intelligence Squadron was re-designated as the 451st Information Operations Squadron, before reverting to the 451st Intelligence Squadron on 1April 2007.

On 19July 2002, US Army INSCOM transferred responsibility for administrative and logistical support for Menwith Hill to the US Air Force, to bring the site in-line with other facilities in the UK made available to the US. Notwithstanding, the US Army retained a presence and in place of the 109th Military Intelligence Group, INSCOM formed a provisional battalion designated as the Menwith Hill Battalion (Provisional). On 18 October 2008 the unit, under the command of a lieutenant colonel, was re-designated as the 307th Military Intelligence Battalion, subordinate to the 66th Military Intelligence Brigade headquartered at Wiesbaden, Germany. On 16 October 2009, the battalion was re-designated as the 709th Military Intelligence Battalion.

According to an article in a 2003 issue of an internal NSA newsletter, "Menwith is a large site (several hundred NSA civilians)". In March 2012 researcher Steve Schofield of BASIC produced a 65-page report called "Lifting the Lid on Menwith Hill", funded by the Joseph Rowntree Charitable Trust and commissioned and published by the Yorkshire Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament (CND). Menwith Hill's primary mission is to provide "intelligence support for UK, US and allied interests". The base's multimillion-pound expansion, Project Phoenix, is "one of the largest and most sophisticated high technology programs carried out anywhere in the UK over the last 10 years". Of the 1,800 employees in 2012, 400 were British and 1,200 were American employees of the NSA.

During the 2009 G-20 London Summit NSA intercept specialists based at Menwith Hill attempted to target and decode the encrypted telephone calls of the Russian president Dmitry Medvedev.

The 451st Intelligence Squadron, was inactivated on 24 June 2015.

In November 2017, the site had 627 US staff and 578 UK staff.

Facilities
Planning permission was granted in August 2019 for the construction of three new radomes at the site, bringing the total number to thirty-seven. The three new radomes would be 21 m in diameter and located in the southern part of the site.

Extension of the site means that it now covers 605 acre.

Ownership and administration
RAF Menwith Hill is owned by the British Ministry of Defence (MOD). Although designated as an RAF station, it is made available to the United States Department of Defense (DOD) under the 1951 NATO Status of Forces Agreement and other classified arrangements. The MOD retains control over the site's use and facilities, however the administration of the site is the responsibility of the US authorities.

The US Air Force's 421st Air Base Squadron provides Menwith Hill with base and mission support services. The squadron is part of the 423rd Air Base Group which in turn is part of the 501st Combat Support Wing, both of which have their headquarters at RAF Alconbury in Cambridgeshire.

Mission
According to the Royal Air Force "RAF Menwith Hill is an integral part of the US DOD world-wide defence communications network. Its primary mission is to provide intelligence support for UK, US and allied interests." The site is a field station of the US National Security Agency (NSA), with personnel from other parts of the DOD also present. UK personnel from the MOD and Government Communications Headquarters (GCHQ) are integrated into both the operational and administrative elements of the site.

In November 2017, the British Government advised that 1,205 personnel worked at the station, comprising 33 staff from the US military, 344 US contractors, 250 US civilians, 7 UK military (5 Royal Navy and 2 RAF), 85 UK contractors and 486 UK civilians (including those employed by GCHQ).

Security
Site security is provided by the Ministry of Defence Police (MDP). One of three MDP Central Support Group units is based at Menwith Hill, providing armed officers who can be deployed regionally at short notice, to support wider MDP operations.

On 1 April 2006, RAF Menwith Hill was designated as a protected site for the purposes of Section 128 of the Serious Organised Crime and Police Act 2005. The effect of the act was to make it a specific criminal offence for a person to trespass into the station.

ECHELON Interception System
In 1988, investigative journalist Duncan Campbell revealed, in an article entitled "Somebody's listening" and published in New Statesman, the existence of the ECHELON surveillance program, an extension of the UKUSA Agreement on global signals intelligence Sigint. He also detailed how the eavesdropping operations worked. Duncan Campbell presented a report commissioned by STOA concerning the ECHELON system, at a "hearing of the Committee on Citizens Freedoms and Rights, Justice and Home Affairs on the subject the European Union and data protection" which prompted the European Union to set up the Temporary Committee on the ECHELON Interception System.

On 5 July 2000, the European Union set up the European Parliament's Temporary Committee on the ECHELON Interception System stated that the global system for the interception of private and commercial communications was operating by means of "cooperation proportionate to their capabilities" among the US, the UK, Canada, Australia and New Zealand under the UKUSA. ... It seems likely ... that its name is in fact ECHELON." The Committee raised concerns about the incompatibility of the interception of private and commercial communications with the fundamental right to respect for private life (Article 8 of the ECHR). They were also concerned that interception of commercial communications could be used for "competitive intelligence-gathering rather than combating corruption." During the early 1970s, the first of what became more than eight large satellite communications dishes were installed at Menwith Hill.

In 1999 he wrote a report on COMINT entitled Interception Capabilities 2000 for the European Parliament.

In 1996 author and investigative journalist, Nicky Hager in his book entitled Secret Power: New Zealand's Role in the International Spy Network, provided a detailed account of ECHELON, the worldwide electronic surveillance system used by an intelligence alliance of the United States, the United Kingdom, Canada, Australia and New Zealand.

On 3 November 1999, the BBC reported that they had confirmation from the Australian Government of the existence of a powerful "global spying network" codenamed Echelon, that can eavesdrop on every single phone call, fax or e-mail, anywhere on the planet" with Britain and the United States as the chief protagonists. They confirmed that Menwith Hill was "linked directly to the headquarters of the US National Security Agency (NSA) at Fort Meade in Maryland."

Demonstrations
Between 1984 and 1995 a number of peace camps were established in close proximity to the station. A number of other individual protests have also taken place, predominantly related to nuclear proliferation and strategic missile defense. Protests also occurred at other US military locations in the UK such as Greenham Common.

Objections to the Strategic Defense Initiative have led to demonstrators storming the perimeter fence, and to demands in 2007 from Labour MPs for a full debate about missile defence and Menwith Hill. Actions continue into 2006.

One particular local activist, Lindis Percy, was prosecuted, over a protracted period, under a number of different laws.

In April 2012 activists affiliated with the global Occupy Movement held a four-day campsite at Menwith Hill. Protesters said they hoped the camp would "reignite the debate locally, nationally and globally about whether the subversive and undemocratic nature of activities at the base are acceptable, or indeed accountable, to the British public. This debate however, never happened outside of the fringe elements of society."

title: RAF Menwith Hill


text:
Emperor of Austria

The emperor of Austria (Kaiser von Österreich) was the ruler of the Austrian Empire and later the Austro-Hungarian Empire. The hereditary imperial title and office was proclaimed in 1804 by Francis II, Holy Roman Emperor, a member of the House of Habsburg-Lorraine, and continually held by him and his heirs until Charles I relinquished power in 1918.

The emperors retained the title of Archduke of Austria. The wives of the emperors held the title empress, while other members of the family held the titles of archduke or archduchess.

Predecessors
Members of the House of Austria, the Habsburg dynasty, had been the elected Holy Roman Emperors since 1438 (except for a five-year break from 1740 to 1745) and mostly resided in Vienna. Thus the term "Austrian emperor" may occur in texts dealing with the time before 1804, when no Austrian Empire existed. In these cases the word Austria means the composite monarchy ruled by the dynasty, not the country. A special case was Maria Theresa; she bore the imperial title as the consort of Francis I (r. 1745–1765), but she herself was the monarch of the Austrian hereditary lands including Bohemia and Hungary.

The emperor
In the face of aggressions by Napoleon I, who had been proclaimed "Emperor of the French" (French: Empereur des Français), by the Constitution of the Year XII on 18 May 1804, Francis II feared for the future of the Holy Roman Empire and wished to maintain his and his family's imperial status in case the Holy Roman Empire should be dissolved. Therefore, on 11 August 1804 he created the new title of "Emperor of Austria" for himself and his successors as heads of the House of Habsburg-Lorraine. For two years, Francis carried two imperial titles: being Holy Roman Emperor Francis II and "by the Grace of God" (Von Gottes Gnaden) Emperor Francis I of Austria.

In 1805, an Austrian-led army suffered a humiliating defeat at the Battle of Austerlitz and the victorious Napoleon proceeded to dismantle the old Reich (which at this time was only a powerless confederation) by motivating or pressuring several German princes to enter the separate Confederation of the Rhine with their lands in July. This led Francis II/I on 6 August 1806 to declare the Reich dissolved and to lay down the Imperial Crown created in the second half of the 10th century (today displayed at the Treasury of Hofburg Palace in Vienna).

From 1806 onwards, Francis was Emperor of Austria only. He had three successors—Ferdinand I, Francis Joseph I and Charles I—before the empire broke apart in 1918. A coronation ceremony was never established; the heir to the throne became emperor the moment his predecessor died or abdicated. The symbol of the Austrian emperor was the dynasty's private crown dating back to Rudolf II ((r. 1576 – 1612)), (called Rudolfinische Hauskrone by the experts).

Titles of the emperor
The Austrian emperors had an extensive list of titles and claims that reflected the geographic expanse and diversity of the lands ruled by the Austrian Habsburgs. The grand title of the emperor of Austria had been changed several times: by a patent of 1 August 1804, by a court office decree from 22 August 1836, by an Imperial court ministry decree of 6 January 1867 and finally by a letter of 12 December 1867. Shorter versions were recommended for official documents and international treaties: "Emperor of Austria, King of Bohemia etc. and Apostolic King of Hungary", "Emperor of Austria and Apostolic King of Hungary", "His Majesty the Emperor and King" and "His Imperial and Royal Apostolic Majesty".

The full list (after the loss of the Lombardy in 1859 and Venetia in 1866):

Emperor of Austria, Apostolic King of Hungary, King of Bohemia, of Dalmatia, of Croatia, of Slavonia, of Galicia, of Lodomeria, and of Illyria, King of Jerusalem, and so forth, Archduke of Austria, Grand Duke of Tuscany and of Cracow, Duke of Lorraine, of Salzburg, of Styria, of Carinthia, of Carniola and of the Bukovina, Grand Prince of Transylvania, Margrave in Moravia, Duke of Upper and Lower Silesia, of Modena, Parma, Piacenza and Guastalla, of Auschwitz and Zator, of Teschen, Friuli, Ragusa and Zara, Princely Count of Habsburg and Tyrol, of Kyburg, Gorizia and Gradisca, Prince of Trent and Brixen, Margrave of Upper and Lower Lusatia and in Istria, Count of Hohenems, Feldkirch, Bregenz, Sonnenberg, and so forth, Lord of Trieste, of Cattaro and of the Windic March, Grand Voivode of the Voivodship of Serbia, and so forth, Sovereign of the Order of the Golden Fleece.

House and court
The function of the emperor was styled like a secular papacy. Therefore, it was the overall goal to demonstrate the all-highest (allerhöchste) majesty and dignity of the monarch to his subjects and to other monarchs and countries. His and his entourage's life was governed by very strict rules all the time.

The Imperial House
The members of the House of Habsburg were ranked as princes and princesses of the blood imperial, with the honorary title of Erzherzog or Erzherzogin (archduke or archduchess). Their permanent address and their travels abroad had to be agreed to by the Emperor.

Whoever wanted to marry an archduke or archduchess of the Habsburg dynasty had to originate from a ruling or formerly ruling house, as was stipulated by the Familienstatut des Allerhöchsten Herrscherhauses, the Family Statute of the Highest Monarch's House, issued by Ferdinand I in 1839. Otherwise the marriage would be one "to the left hand", called a morganatic marriage, excluding the offspring of the couple from any right the House of Habsburg possessed. (The problems of such a situation were encountered when Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria, heir presumptive to the throne, married a simple countess in 1900).

To manage the political implications of the Imperial house after 1867 the Emperor and King appointed the k.u.k. Minister des kaiserlichen und königlichen Hauses und des Äußeren (the I.& R. Minister of the Imperial and Royal House and of the Exterior), one of the three ministers common to Austria and Hungary. Under Francis I, Klemens von Metternich had covered these and many other agenda, bearing the title Haus-, Hof- und Staatskanzler (Chancellor of the House, the Court and the State).

The Imperial Court
The Emperor's household, his personal officers and the premises where they worked were called Hof ("court"). The four highest officials managing the Imperial Court, who were drawn from among the highest noblemen of the Empire, were
 * the Grand Master (Obersthofmeister),
 * the Grand Marshal (Obersthofmarschall),
 * the Grand Chamberlain (Oberstkämmerer),
 * the Master of the Stables (Oberststallmeister).

Whoever sought an audience with the Emperor himself had to apply at the Office of the Grand Master (Obersthofmeisteramt). Francis I used to wear civilian clothes of the Biedermeier era, while Francis Joseph I and Charles I mostly were seen in the uniform of an Austrian field marshal to underline the importance of the army to the throne. Francis Joseph I expected soldiers to appear in uniform at his court and civilians to appear in tails. He never shook hands with visitors; in letters he never addressed his subjects as "Sir" or "Mr." (Herr).

The Emperor's court managed the following institutions:
 * the Imperial Palace in Vienna (Hofburg); each of the four Emperors of Austria chose his living and working rooms in another part of this huge palace;
 * the Imperial Treasury at Hofburg, where the Habsburgs' crown insignia were kept;
 * the Imperial Court Library, today Austrian National Library
 * Imperial residences outside Vienna, like Schönbrunn Palace (the area was included into the Vienna city area in 1892) and Laxenburg Palace;
 * the court's collection of carriages (today Wagenburg at Schönbrunn Palace Gardens);
 * the I.R. Hofburgtheater and the I.R. Hofoperntheater;
 * the Imperial Crypt below the Capuchin Church and Monastery in Vienna, where three of the four emperors of Austria have been buried (Charles I was buried on Madeira, his last exile).

Austrian Empire
The Austrian Empire (Kaisertum Österreich) from 1804 to 1867 consisted of the Habsburg lands as a whole, leaving each land its special definition as kingdom (e.g., Bohemia, Hungary), archduchy (Lower and Upper Austria), duchy (e.g., Carniola) or princely county (e.g., Tyrol), however the Kingdom of Hungary—as Regnum Independens—was administered by its own institutions separately from the rest of the empire. Kaisertum might literally be translated as "emperordom" on analogy with "kingdom" or "emperor-ship"; the term denotes specifically "the territory ruled by an emperor". Austria proper (as opposed to the complex of Habsburg lands as a whole) had been an archduchy since the 15th century, and most of the other territories of the Empire had their own institutions and territorial history, although there were some attempts at centralization, especially between 1848 and 1859.

In 1866, Austria lost the war with Prussia and Italy. Francis Joseph I was urged to solve the internal problems of his realm and was well-advised to provide a substantial concession to the Hungarian nobility, which had stayed in passive resistance to him after the crushed Hungarian revolution of 1848- 1849. By the Austro-Hungarian Compromise of 1867 (Ausgleich), the Kingdom of Hungary and the Empire of Austria, as two separate entities, joined on an equal basis to form the Dual Monarchy of Austria-Hungary. Thus the former Habsburg-ruled lands were restructured into a dual union which shared a monarch and a common army, navy and foreign policy. Transylvania became again an integral part of Hungary while Croatia-Slavonia were acknowledged as part of the Lands of the Crown of Saint Stephen, which were called Transleithania by government officials to distinguish them from Cisleithania, the Austrian part of the empire from 1867 onwards. The latter were known in the internal administration as the "Kingdoms and Lands Represented in the Imperial Council" (Die im Reichsrat vertretenen Königreiche und Länder). Unofficially ever since, these territories officially were called "Austria" from 1915 to 1918 only, despite the fact that all the citizens held the common Austrian citizenship since 1867.

Austria-Hungary disintegrated at the end of World War I in 1918, when the Austrian lands established their independence. Bohemia and Moravia in the newly created Czechoslovakia, Galicia joined Poland, while Bukovina became a part of Romania. Carniola and Dalmatia joined the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes. Other territories were annexed by Italy (South Tyrol, Trieste and Istria). Yet the last Emperor, Charles I, used his imperial title until the end of his life. The Kingdom of Hungary, due to measures enacted during peace proceedings after the Great War and having terminated the 1867 compromise by 31 October 1918, similarly broke apart.

Abbreviations of common and non common institutions
The term Kaiserlich und Königlich (k.u.k., spoken, meaning "Imperial and Royal") was decreed in a letter of 17 October 1889 for the army, the navy and the institutions shared by both parts of the monarchy. Institutions of Cisleithania used the term Kaiserlich-Königlich (K.K., meaning "Imperial Royal", e.g. K.K. österreichische Staatsbahnen, Imperial Royal Austrian State Railways).

Succession to the throne
The heir apparent to the throne bore the title of Crown Prince (Kronprinz); heirs presumptive were called Thronfolger, in addition to their title of archduke. Francis I was followed by Ferdinand Charles, (later Ferdinand I). In the wake of the 1848 revolutions, the empire's existence was in danger. The Habsburg family tried a new start with a new emperor: Ferdinand I was urged to hand over government on 2 December 1848. He then moved to Prague Castle and, without laying down his imperial title, lived there privately until his death in 1875.

As Ferdinand I had no sons, his brother Francis Charles would have become emperor, but was persuaded by his wife Princess Sophie of Bavaria to pass over the right of succession to their son, Francis Joseph. He accepted the duty of the Emperor of Austria without having been Crown Prince or Thronfolger before. Francis Joseph's only son Rudolf committed suicide in 1889, Francis Joseph's brother Karl Ludwig died in 1896. Karl Ludwig's son Franz Ferdinand became heir presumptive to the throne. He was assassinated in Sarajevo, Bosnia in 1914; due to his morganatic marriage, his son had no rights to the throne. At this time his younger brother Otto Franz had already died, which made Otto's son Charles the new heir presumptive to the throne, to which he acceded in 1916 as Charles I, upon the death of Francis Joseph I. In this moment Charles I's son, four-year-old Otto became the last Crown Prince of Austria-Hungary. He declared himself a loyal citizen of the Republic of Austria in 1961.

Heads of the House of Habsburg-Lorraine (since 1918)
Charles I did not see himself as a pretender but as the monarch of Austria, while the Habsburg Law of the Republic of Austria of 1919 called him "the former bearer of the crown" (der ehemalige Träger der Krone). His son Otto von Habsburg, who had used the title Archduke of Austria in his earlier life outside of Austria, declared himself a loyal citizen of the Republic in order to be allowed to enter Austria; from 1961 onwards he no longer considered himself pretender. Otto's son Karl von Habsburg has never pretended to be the rightful monarch of Austria.

 * Charles I (11 November 1918 – 1 April 1922)
 * Otto von Habsburg (1 April 1922 – 1 January 2007)
 * Karl von Habsburg (1 January 2007 – present)
 * Heir apparent: Ferdinand Zvonimir von Habsburg

title: Emperor of Austria


text:
Muroidea

The Muroidea are a large superfamily of rodents, including mice, rats, voles, hamsters, lemmings, gerbils, and many other relatives. Although the Muroidea originated in Eurasia, they occupy a vast variety of habitats on every continent except Antarctica. Some authorities have placed all members of this group into a single family, Muridae, due to difficulties in determining how the subfamilies are related to one another. Many of the families within the Muroidea superfamily have more variations between the families than between the different clades. A possible explanation for the variations in rodents is because of the location of these rodents; these changes could have been due to radiation or the overall environment they migrated to or originated in. The following taxonomy is based on recent well-supported molecular phylogenies.

The muroids are classified in six families, 19 subfamilies, around 280 genera, and at least 1,750 species.

Taxonomy

 * Family Platacanthomyidae (spiny dormouse and pygmy dormice)
 * Family Spalacidae (fossorial muroids)
 * Subfamily Myospalacinae (zokors)
 * Subfamily Rhizomyinae (bamboo rats and root rats)
 * Subfamily Spalacinae (blind mole rats)
 * Clade Eumuroida – typical muroids
 * Family Calomyscidae
 * Subfamily Calomyscinae (mouse-like hamsters)
 * Family Nesomyidae
 * Subfamily Cricetomyinae (pouched rats and mice)
 * Subfamily Dendromurinae (African climbing mice, gerbil mice, fat mice and forest mice)
 * Subfamily Mystromyinae (white-tailed rat)
 * Subfamily Nesomyinae (Malagasy rats and mice)
 * Subfamily Petromyscinae (rock mice and the climbing swamp mouse)
 * Family Cricetidae
 * Subfamily Arvicolinae (voles, lemmings and muskrat)
 * Subfamily Cricetinae (true hamsters)
 * Subfamily Neotominae (North American rats and mice)
 * Subfamily Sigmodontinae (New World rats and mice)
 * Subfamily Tylomyinae (vesper rats and climbing rats)
 * Family Muridae
 * Subfamily Deomyinae (spiny mice, brush furred mice, link rat)
 * Subfamily Gerbillinae (gerbils, jirds and sand rats)
 * Subfamily Leimacomyinae (Togo Mouse)
 * Subfamily Lophiomyinae (crested rat)
 * Subfamily Murinae (Old World rats and mice including vlei rats)

Phylogeny
5 main clades are recognized by Jansa & Weksler (2004).

 * Family Spalacidae: Spalacinae, Myospalacinae, and Rhizomyinae (fossorial species of the Old World)
 * Family Calomyscidae: Calomyscinae (Asia)
 * Family Nesomyidae: Petromyscinae, Mystromyinae, Cricetomyinae, Nesomyinae, and core dendromurines (Africa and Madagascar)
 * Family Muridae: Murinae, Otomyinae, Gerbillinae, Acomyinae, and Lophiomyinae (Old World)
 * Family Cricetidae: Sigmodontinae, Arvicolinae, and Cricetinae (New World)

Together, Muroidea and its sister group Dipodoidea form the suborder Myomorpha.

The following phylogeny of more than 70 Muroidea genera, based on molecular phylogenetic analysis of the Interphotoreceptor Retinoid Binding Protein (IRBP) gene, is from Jansa & Weksler (2004: 264). Although Platacanthomyidae was not analyzed by Jansa & Weksler (2004), a study by Fabre et al. 2012 suggests that it is the most basal lineage of Muroidea.

title: Muroidea


text:
1996 Spanish general election

The 1996 Spanish general election was held on Sunday, 3 March 1996, to elect the 6th Cortes Generales of the Kingdom of Spain. All 350 seats in the Congress of Deputies were up for election, as well as 208 of 257 seats in the Senate.

Ever since forming a minority government after its victory in the 1993 election, the Spanish Socialist Workers' Party (PSOE) had been rocked by the unveiling of a string of corruption scandals, including the party's illegal financing, misuse of public funds to pay for undeclared bonuses to party officials and allegations of state terrorism. The 1996 election was triggered following the withdrawal of parliamentary support from Convergence and Union (CiU) to the Socialist government of Felipe González in mid 1995.

The election resulted in the first PSOE defeat in a general election since 1979, but predictions of a landslide of the opposition José María Aznar's People's Party (PP) failed to materialize. The PP had been widely expected to make gains after resounding wins in the 1994 European Parliament election and 1995 local and regional elections, with polls suggesting Aznar winning an outright overall majority or coming short of it by few seats would be the most likely scenario. Instead, the election turned into the closest result between the two major parties in the Spanish democratic period to date; a PSOE comeback, fueled by a strong 77.4% voter turnout, the highest scored ever since, left the PP leading by just 1.2 percentage points and 290,000 votes, falling 20 seats short of an absolute majority. Julio Anguita's United Left (IU) also failed to meet expectations, despite scoring their best overall result in a general election since the Communist Party of Spain (PCE)'s results in 1979.

At 156 seats, this would be the worst performance for a winning party in the democratic period until the PP's result in the 2015 election. As a consequence of the election result, Aznar was forced to tone down his attacks to Catalan and Basque nationalists in order to garner their support for his investiture. After two months of negotiations, agreements were reached with CiU, the Basque Nationalist Party (PNV) and Canarian Coalition (CC), enabling for José María Aznar to become prime minister of a centre-right minority cabinet, marking the end of $13 1/2$ years of Socialist government.

Electoral system
The Spanish Cortes Generales were envisaged as an imperfect bicameral system. The Congress of Deputies had greater legislative power than the Senate, having the ability to vote confidence in or withdraw it from a prime minister and to override Senate vetoes by an absolute majority of votes. Nonetheless, the Senate possessed a few exclusive (yet limited in number) functions—such as its role in constitutional amendment—which were not subject to the Congress' override. Voting for the Cortes Generales was on the basis of universal suffrage, which comprised all nationals over 18 years of age and in full enjoyment of their political rights.

For the Congress of Deputies, 348 seats were elected using the D'Hondt method and a closed list proportional representation, with an electoral threshold of three percent of valid votes—which included blank ballots—being applied in each constituency. Seats were allocated to constituencies, corresponding to the provinces of Spain, with each being allocated an initial minimum of two seats and the remaining 248 being distributed in proportion to their populations. Ceuta and Melilla were allocated the two remaining seats, which were elected using plurality voting. The use of the electoral method resulted in an effective threshold based on the district magnitude and the distribution of votes among candidacies.

As a result of the aforementioned allocation, each Congress multi-member constituency was entitled the following seats:

For the Senate, 208 seats were elected using an open list partial block voting system, with electors voting for individual candidates instead of parties. In constituencies electing four seats, electors could vote for up to three candidates; in those with two or three seats, for up to two candidates; and for one candidate in single-member districts. Each of the 47 peninsular provinces was allocated four seats, whereas for insular provinces, such as the Balearic and Canary Islands, districts were the islands themselves, with the larger—Majorca, Gran Canaria and Tenerife—being allocated three seats each, and the smaller—Menorca, Ibiza–Formentera, Fuerteventura, La Gomera, El Hierro, Lanzarote and La Palma—one each. Ceuta and Melilla elected two seats each. Additionally, autonomous communities could appoint at least one senator each and were entitled to one additional senator per each million inhabitants.

Election date
The term of each chamber of the Cortes Generales—the Congress and the Senate—expired four years from the date of their previous election, unless they were dissolved earlier. The election decree was required to be issued no later than the twenty-fifth day prior to the date of expiry of parliament and published on the following day in the Official State Gazette (BOE), with election day taking place on the fifty-fourth day from publication. The previous election was held on 6 June 1993, which meant that the legislature's term would expire on 6 June 1997. The election decree was required to be published in the BOE no later than 13 May 1997, with the election taking place on the fifty-fourth day from publication, setting the latest possible election date for the Cortes Generales on Sunday, 6 July 1997.

The prime minister had the prerogative to dissolve both chambers at any given time—either jointly or separately—and call a snap election, provided that no motion of no confidence was in process, no state of emergency was in force and that dissolution did not occur before one year had elapsed since the previous one. Additionally, both chambers were to be dissolved and a new election called if an investiture process failed to elect a prime minister within a two-month period from the first ballot. Barred this exception, there was no constitutional requirement for simultaneous elections for the Congress and the Senate. Still, as of 2024 there has been no precedent of separate elections taking place under the 1978 Constitution.

After Convergence and Union (CiU) withdrew their confidence and supply support to the PSOE-led government in June 1995,  materializing in the 1996 General State Budget being voted down in October,  Prime Minister Felipe González was forced to trigger an early dissolution of the Cortes Generales and a snap election to be arranged for early 1996, fifteen months ahead of schedule.

The Cortes Generales were officially dissolved on 9 January 1996 after the publication of the dissolution decree in the BOE, setting the election date for 3 March and scheduling for both chambers to reconvene on 27 March.

Economy
The legislature was marked by the international economic crisis of 1992-1993. While the economic situation in Spain since 1985 (coinciding with the accession of Spain into the European Communities) was very favorable and the evolutionary profile of per capita GDP was resembling that of the EU countries, from 1989 the GDP started to decrease markedly and the economy entered a cycle of recession. The five-year period 1985-1989 was characterized by a phase of expansive growth and massive inflow of foreign capital, attracted by high interest rates. Post-1989, however, saw unfavorable economic indicators, and recession and global economic crisis deeply affected unemployment rates.

From 1994, a remarkable recovery phase began, from a recession of 1.1% of GDP in 1993 to a growth rate of 2%. Although the economic situation was difficult, the unemployment rate began a gradual decline, reaching the end of the legislature in 22% after reaching 24% in 1994. On the other hand, the inflation rate fell to 5.5% between 1994 and 1996, public debt stood at 68% and the deficit at 7.1%.

Corruption scandals
The 1993–96 legislature was marked by the uncovering of numerous corruption scandals involving the ruling Spanish Socialist Workers' Party. The eruption of corruption scandals had not been uncommon since the early 1990s, but was in this period when those seemed to affect directly to the incumbent PSOE leadership. These scandals would plague González's government throughout Felipe González's fourth tenure as Prime Minister of Spain.

On 23 November 1993, Spanish daily Diario 16 unveiled that Civil Guard Chief Director Luis Roldán had amassed a large patrimony, worth 400 million Pta and a large real estate assets, since assuming office in 1986, which contrasted with his net annual income of 400,000 Pta. Roldán then denounces a media campaign against him and defends the money is of legal origin, but proves unable to show evidence supporting his claims. The accusations lead to his dismissal by the government on 3 December. On 9 March 1994, El Mundo reveals that officers from the Ministry of the Interior had used money from the fondos reservados (Spanish for "reserved funds"), public funds destined to finance the fight against terrorism and drug trafficking and not subject to publicity, justification or external oversight, to make bonus payments to high-ranking officers from the Ministry; Roldán name appeared among those accused of having received such payments. In April, Diario 16 and El Mundo revealed that former President of Navarre Gabriel Urralburu had collected millionary commissions from construction companies in the awarding of public works during his government, with Roldán having also benefitted from it. Evidence now pointed to Roldán having used his office to amass a fortune through fraudulent means, which led to Roldán fleeing the country and in incumbent Interior Minister Antoni Asunción, responsible for monitoring Roldán, resigning as a consequence.
 * Roldán scandal

During his time missing, Roldán sent letters admitting the illegalities he had done and accusing other Interior Ministry high-ranking members of also having benefited from the reserved funds and warning that he was willing to "pull the rug out". In a handwritten letter sent to González himself and revealed by El Mundo daily on 17 June 1994, Roldán acknowledged having received a monthly payment of 10 million Pta from Rafael Vera, State Security Director until early 1994. Among those he accused was former Interior Minister José Luis Corcuera (1988–93), but also Prime Minister González, whom he pointed was "aware of everything". In the end, after ten months on the run, Luis Roldán was arrested on 27 February 1995 in Laos amidst claims that he and the Socialist government had reached an agreement in which Roldán would surrender himself in exchange of him being charged with just two crimes out of the seven attributable to him: bribery and embezzlement. This scandal came to be known as the "Laos papers", because the initial governmental version of his capture—that it had been done cooperatively with the Laotian government—was disproved by Laotian authorities. The PSOE government refused to recognize the veracity of these claims, but acknowledged that their initial version was "wrong". Roldán would later be convicted for the crimes of bribery, embezzlement, fraud, forgery and tax evasion.

Concurrently with the Roldán scandal, it is revealed on 5 April 1994 that former Governor of the Bank of Spain, Mariano Rubio, had a secret bank account in Ibercorp worth 130 million Ptas of undeclared money. Ibercorp had been an investment bank which had been intervened by the Bank of Spain in 1992 due to its involvement in obscure financial operations. Already in February 1992, it had been revealed that Rubio—then Governor of the Bank of Spain—and former Economy Minister Miguel Boyer had concealed from the National Securities Market Commission (CNMV) that both of them possessed stock shares in Ibercorp and used them to amass a fortune. Rubio had denied the accusations in 1992, which nonetheless cost him his post. However, the new revelations in 1994, which resulted in his criminal prosecution, put Felipe González and former Economy Minister Carlos Solchaga—who had backed Rubio in 1992, believing his claims of innocence, and were also ultimately responsible for his naming to the post—in a delicate political situation. Agriculture Minister Vicente Albero was also forced to resign his office in May 1994 after it was unveiled he had also possessed a secret account with undeclared money related to the scandal.
 * Ibercorp case

In 1991, two policemen, José Amedo and Michel Domínguez, had been convicted for participating in the Liberation Antiterrorist Groups (GAL), death squads involved in a 'dirty war' against ETA in the 1983–87 period and thought to be secretly financed by the Socialist government. Initially thought to be acting independently, they confessed on 16 December 1994 to judge Baltasar Garzón that a number of former police and Interior Ministry officers were also involved in the GAL, showing evidence supporting their claims. Among those were former Interior Minister José Barrionuevo (1982–88), State Security Directors Julián Sancristóbal (1984–86) and Rafael Vera (1986–94), as well as former Secretary-General of the PSOE in Biscay Ricardo García Damborenea and a number of police officers accused of murder and embezzlement of public funds. Throughout early 1995, those accused except for Barrionuevo were arrested and court-questioned, leading to the 'GAL case' being re-opened by the Spanish National Court on 20 February in order to clarify whether the GAL were financed with money from the reserved funds. Barrionuevo accused Garzón, then instructing the case and who had contested the 1993 general election within the PSOE electoral lists, to be acting motivated by personal revenge against the party after political differences leading to his resignation as deputy in May 1994.
 * GAL case

In May to July 1995 some of the defendants accused PM Felipe González of "knowing and allowing such activities", even pointing out that he could have been the person creating and financing the GAL. By 1996, however, the Spanish Supreme Court concluded that there was not proof of González's involvement and that the accusations were based on mere suspicions. Still, former Interior Minister José Barrionuevo and State Security Directors Rafael Vera and Julián Sancristóbal were convicted for the scandal.

Parliamentary composition
The tables below show the composition of the parliamentary groups in both chambers at the time of dissolution.

Parties and candidates
The electoral law allowed for parties and federations registered in the interior ministry, coalitions and groupings of electors to present lists of candidates. Parties and federations intending to form a coalition ahead of an election were required to inform the relevant Electoral Commission within ten days of the election call, whereas groupings of electors needed to secure the signature of at least one percent of the electorate in the constituencies for which they sought election, disallowing electors from signing for more than one list of candidates.

Below is a list of the main parties and electoral alliances which contested the election:

The Spanish Socialist Workers' Party (PSOE), United Left (IU), The Greens (LV), Nationalist and Ecologist Agreement (ENE) and Republican Left of Catalonia (ERC) formed the Ibiza and Formentera in the Senate alliance for the Senate election.

title: 1996 Spanish general election


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Minor orders

In Christianity, minor orders are ranks of church ministry. In the Catholic Church, the predominating Latin Church formerly distinguished between the major orders —priest (including bishop), deacon and subdeacon—and four minor orders—acolyte, exorcist, lector, and porter (in descending order of seniority). In 1972, the Vatican re-titled the minor orders as "ministries", with those of lector and acolyte being kept throughout the Latin Church. In the Eastern Orthodox Church, the three minor orders in use are those of subdeacon, reader and chanter.

The rites by which all four minor orders were conferred, but not the actual conferral of the order, are still employed for members of some Catholic religious institutes and societies of apostolic life authorized to observe the 1962 form of the Roman Rite.

Some traditionalist Catholics continue to use minor orders, as do Old Catholics, the Polish National Catholic Church and the Liberal Catholic Church.

Western Catholicism
From the beginning of the 3rd century, there is evidence in Western Christianity of the existence of what became the four minor orders (acolytes, exorcists, doorkeepers, and readers), as well as of cantors and fossores (tomb diggers). The evidence for readers is probably the earliest. In the West, unlike the East, where imposition of hands was used, the rite of ordination was by the handing over to them of objects seen as instruments of the office.

The Council of Sardica (343) mentions the lectorate alone as obligatory before ordination to the diaconate. The obligation to receive all four minor orders appears to date only from a time when they ceased to indicate exercise of an actual function. Even in the early years of the 20th century, no minimum age, other than that of the "age of reason", was laid down for receiving minor orders. However, the 1917 Code of Canon Law laid down that nobody was to be given clerical tonsure, which had to be received before minor orders, before beginning the regular course of theological studies. Before the entry into force of that Code, it was an almost universal custom to confer all four minor orders at one time, since the bishop was authorized to dispense from the rule that each order had to be exercised for some time before reception of the next highest order. Today, as indicated in the 1983 Code of Canon Law, anyone who is to be ordained to the diaconate must already have received the ministries of lector and acolyte and exercised them for a suitable period, with an interval of at least six months between becoming an acolyte and becoming a deacon.

The 1917 Code of Canon Law also restricted conferral of tonsure and any order below that of the presbyterate to those who intended to become priests and who were judged likely to be worthy priests. Previously, there were lay cardinals and others, including the famous Franz Liszt, who received minor orders alone. They could even marry and remain clerics, the status of belonging to the clergy being at that time conferred through clerical tonsure, provided that they married only once and that to a virgin; but by the early 20th century a cleric who married was considered to have forfeited his clerical status. Today, a man who receives what were previously called minor orders is not yet a cleric, since today one becomes a cleric only upon ordination to the diaconate, a rule that applies even to members of institutes authorized to observe the 1962 form of the Roman Rite, such as the Priestly Fraternity of Saint Peter and others under the care of the Pontifical Commission Ecclesia Dei, regarding, however, only the incardination of members within the institute or society.

In the early 20th century, Auguste Boudinhon said that, on the grounds that minor orders did not originate with Jesus or the apostles, the view that minor orders and the subdiaconate were sacramental, a view held by several medieval theologians, was no longer held. The slightly earlier G. van Noort said that the view of their sacramentality, which was held by most scholastic theologians, including Thomas Aquinas, was then held only by a few, among whom he mentioned Louis Billot (1846–1931) and Adolphe Tanquerey (1854–1932). In the 1950s, Antonio Piolanti recognized as orders only episcopacy, priesthood (presbyterate) and diaconate, the three whose transmission is reserved to bishops. In speaking of the hierarchical structure of the Church, the Second Vatican Council mentioned only these three orders, not minor orders or subdiaconate.

By Pope Paul VI's motu proprio Ministeria quaedam of 15 August 1972, the term "minor orders" has been replaced by that of "ministries". Two of what were called minor orders, those of reader and acolyte, are kept throughout the Latin Church, and national episcopal conferences are free to use the term "subdeacon" in place of that of "acolyte". The motu proprio specified the functions of each of these two ministries, A prescribed interval, as decided by the Holy See and the national episcopal conference, is to be observed between receiving them. Candidates for diaconate and for the priesthood must receive both ministries and exercise them for some time before receiving holy orders.

Conferral of the minor orders or ministries is by the ordinary: either a diocesan bishop or someone who is equivalent in law to a diocesan bishop or, in the case of clerical religious institutes and societies of apostolic life, a major superior. The two ministries that are in use throughout the Latin Church could be conferred even on persons who are not candidates for holy orders.

In the Latin Church, the lay ministries of acolyte and lector, may be entrusted to all suitable faithful, whether male or female, per CIC Canon 230 §2. Additionally there is established the instituted ministry of the Catechist, whether male or female.

Eastern Christianity
Eastern Christianity traditionally views the subdeacon as a minor order, unlike the practice of the West which considered it a major order. The other common minor order is reader (lector). The minor order of porter is mentioned historically in some service-books, but no longer is given; all of the rights and responsibilities of each minor order are viewed as contained in the subdiaconate.

The 23 sui iuris Eastern Catholic Churches in union with Rome have their traditional minor orders, governed by their own particular law. In all Eastern Catholic Churches, subdeacons are minor clerics, since admission to major orders is by ordination as deacon. The Byzantine tradition allows for several orders of minor clerics. The sui iuris Byzantine Catholic Metropolitan Church of Pittsburgh, also called the Byzantine-Ruthenian Church, has the minor orders of candle bearer, cantor, lector and subdeacon, and in English uses the term "ordination" for their cheirothesis. The minor orders of candle bearer and cantor are given before tonsure during ordination to the lectorate.

Eastern Orthodox Churches routinely confer the minor orders of reader and subdeacon, and some jurisdictions also ordain cantors. Ordination to minor orders is performed outside the sanctuary and at any communal worship service, but always outside the context of actual Divine Liturgy. The order of taper-bearer is now used as part of ordination as a lector. The orders of doorkeepers, exorcists, and acolytes are no longer in common use.

title: Minor orders


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2004 Spanish general election

The 2004 Spanish general election was held on Sunday, 14 March 2004, to elect the 8th Cortes Generales of the Kingdom of Spain. All 350 seats in the Congress of Deputies were up for election, as well as 208 of 259 seats in the Senate.

The electoral outcome was heavily influenced by the aftermath of the Madrid train bombings on 11 March, as a result of which all parties suspended their electoral campaigns. For two days following the attacks, the People's Party (PP) government kept blaming the terrorist organization ETA for the bombings, even in spite of mounting evidence suggesting the involvement of Islamist groups. The government was accused of misinformation, as an Islamist attack would have been perceived as the direct result of Spain's involvement in the Iraq War, which had been highly unpopular among the public.

The election result was described by some media as an "unprecedented electoral upset". The perceived abuse of the PP's absolute majority throughout the legislature, with a focus on Spain's involvement in Iraq, was said to have helped fuel a wave of discontent against the incumbent ruling party, with the government's mismanagement on the bombings serving as the final catalyst for change to happen. At 11 million votes and 42.6%, the opposition Spanish Socialist Workers' Party (PSOE) increased by 3.1 million its 2000 result, securing 164 seats—a net gain of 39. In contrast, the PP, which opinion polls earlier in the year had predicted would secure a diminished but still commanding victory, lost 35 seats and 7 percentage points, resulting in the worst defeat for a sitting government in Spain up to that point since 1982. The 75.7% turnout was among the highest since the Spanish transition to democracy, with no subsequent general election having exceeded such a figure. The number of votes cast, at 26.1 million votes, remained the highest figure in gross terms for any Spanish general election until the April 2019 election.

The day after the election, Zapatero announced his will to form a minority PSOE government, supported by other parties in a confidence and supply basis. Two minor left-wing parties, Republican Left of Catalonia (ERC) and United Left (IU), immediately announced their intention to support Zapatero's government. On 16 April 2004, Zapatero was elected as new prime minister by an outright majority of the new Congress, with 183 out of 350 members voting for him, being sworn in the next day.

Electoral system
The Spanish Cortes Generales were envisaged as an imperfect bicameral system. The Congress of Deputies had greater legislative power than the Senate, having the ability to vote confidence in or withdraw it from a prime minister and to override Senate vetoes by an absolute majority of votes. Nonetheless, the Senate possessed a few exclusive (yet limited in number) functions—such as its role in constitutional amendment—which were not subject to the Congress' override. Voting for the Cortes Generales was on the basis of universal suffrage, which comprised all nationals over 18 years of age and in full enjoyment of their political rights.

For the Congress of Deputies, 348 seats were elected using the D'Hondt method and a closed list proportional representation, with an electoral threshold of three percent of valid votes—which included blank ballots—being applied in each constituency. Seats were allocated to constituencies, corresponding to the provinces of Spain, with each being allocated an initial minimum of two seats and the remaining 248 being distributed in proportion to their populations. Ceuta and Melilla were allocated the two remaining seats, which were elected using plurality voting. The use of the electoral method resulted in an effective threshold based on the district magnitude and the distribution of votes among candidacies.

As a result of the aforementioned allocation, each Congress multi-member constituency was entitled the following seats:

For the Senate, 208 seats were elected using an open list partial block voting system, with electors voting for individual candidates instead of parties. In constituencies electing four seats, electors could vote for up to three candidates; in those with two or three seats, for up to two candidates; and for one candidate in single-member districts. Each of the 47 peninsular provinces was allocated four seats, whereas for insular provinces, such as the Balearic and Canary Islands, districts were the islands themselves, with the larger—Majorca, Gran Canaria and Tenerife—being allocated three seats each, and the smaller—Menorca, Ibiza–Formentera, Fuerteventura, La Gomera, El Hierro, Lanzarote and La Palma—one each. Ceuta and Melilla elected two seats each. Additionally, autonomous communities could appoint at least one senator each and were entitled to one additional senator per each million inhabitants.

Election date
The term of each chamber of the Cortes Generales—the Congress and the Senate—expired four years from the date of their previous election, unless they were dissolved earlier. The election decree was required to be issued no later than the twenty-fifth day prior to the date of expiry of parliament and published on the following day in the Official State Gazette (BOE), with election day taking place on the fifty-fourth day from publication. The previous election was held on 12 March 2000, which meant that the legislature's term would expire on 12 March 2004. The election decree was required to be published in the BOE no later than 17 February 2004, with the election taking place on the fifty-fourth day from publication, setting the latest possible election date for the Cortes Generales on Sunday, 11 April 2004.

The prime minister had the prerogative to dissolve both chambers at any given time—either jointly or separately—and call a snap election, provided that no motion of no confidence was in process, no state of emergency was in force and that dissolution did not occur before one year had elapsed since the previous one. Additionally, both chambers were to be dissolved and a new election called if an investiture process failed to elect a prime minister within a two-month period from the first ballot. Barred this exception, there was no constitutional requirement for simultaneous elections for the Congress and the Senate. Still, as of 2024 there has been no precedent of separate elections taking place under the 1978 Constitution.

On 9 January 2004, it was announced that the general election would be held in March, with the election date being agreed with Andalusian president Manuel Chaves to make it being held concurrently with the 2004 Andalusian regional election.

The Cortes Generales were officially dissolved on 20 January 2004 after the publication of the dissolution decree in the BOE, setting the election date for 14 March and scheduling for both chambers to reconvene on 2 April.

Parliamentary composition
The tables below show the composition of the parliamentary groups in both chambers at the time of dissolution.

Parties and candidates
The electoral law allowed for parties and federations registered in the interior ministry, coalitions and groupings of electors to present lists of candidates. Parties and federations intending to form a coalition ahead of an election were required to inform the relevant Electoral Commission within ten days of the election call, whereas groupings of electors needed to secure the signature of at least one percent of the electorate in the constituencies for which they sought election, disallowing electors from signing for more than one list of candidates.

Below is a list of the main parties and electoral alliances which contested the election:

The Socialists' Party of Catalonia (PSC), Republican Left of Catalonia (ERC) and Initiative for Catalonia Greens (ICV) agreed to continue with the Catalan Agreement of Progress alliance for the Senate with the inclusion of United and Alternative Left (EUiA). In the Balearic Islands, PSM–Nationalist Agreement (PSM–EN), United Left of the Balearic Islands (EUIB), The Greens of the Balearic Islands (EVIB) and ERC formed the Progressives for the Balearic Islands alliance. A proposal for an all-left electoral alliance for the Senate in the Valencian Community, comprising the PSOE, United Left of the Valencian Country (EUPV) and the Valencian Nationalist Bloc (BNV) was ultimately discarded.

title: 2004 Spanish general election


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Nikolay Semyonov

Nikolay Nikolayevich Semyonov , sometimes Semenov, Semionov or Semenoff (Никола́й Никола́евич Семёнов; 15 April 1896 – 25 September 1986) was a Soviet physicist and chemist. Semyonov was awarded the 1956 Nobel Prize in Chemistry for his work on the mechanism of chemical transformation.

Life and career
Semyonov was born in Saratov, the son of Elena Dmitrieva and Nikolai Alex Semyonov. He graduated from the department of physics of Petrograd University (1913–1917), where he was a student of Abram Fyodorovich Ioffe. In 1918, he moved to Samara, where he was enlisted into Kolchak's White Army during Russian Civil War.

Semyonov published his first research paper in 1916 and became a lecturer at the University of Tomsk in western Siberia.

After graduating from Saint Petersburg State University, he worked as an assistant and lecturer at the Tomsk and Tomsk University Institute of Technology, where he published his first research paper in 1916. He returned to western Siberia, Petrograd and took charge of the electron phenomena laboratory of the Petrograd Physico-Technical Institute in 1920. He also became the vice-director of the institute. In 1921, he married philologist Maria Boreishe-Liverovsky (student of Zhirmunsky). She died two years later. On September 15-1924, Nikolay married Maria's niece, Natalia Nikolaevna Burtseva. They had two children, one son Yurii Nikolaevich and one daughter Ludmilla Nikolaevna.

During that difficult time, Semyonov, together with Pyotr Kapitsa, discovered a way to measure the magnetic field of an atomic nucleus (1922). Later the experimental setup was improved by Otto Stern and Walther Gerlach and became known as Stern–Gerlach experiment.

In 1925, Semyonov, together with Yakov Frenkel, studied kinetics of condensation and adsorption of vapors. In 1927, he studied ionisation in gases and published an important book, Chemistry of the Electron. In 1928, he, together with Vladimir Fock, created a theory of thermal disruptive discharge of dielectrics.

In 1927, Semyonov studied the ionization of gases, the chemistry of the electron. In 1928, he created the theory of the broken discharge of dielectrics with Vladimir Fock.

He lectured at the Petrograd Polytechnical Institute and was appointed Professor in 1928. In 1931, he organized the Institute of Physical Chemistry of the USSR Academy of Sciences (which moved to Chernogolovka in 1943) and became its first director. In 1932, he became a full member of the Soviet Academy of Sciences.

The ideas of Semyonov have been applied in the science of reaction and production of polymerization reactions. His ideas are also applied in catalysis studies in biological systems.

Semyonov married Natalya Nikolaevna Semyonov and together they both have a son and a daughter. Semyonov died on September 25, 1986, in Moscow, and was buried at the Novodevichy Cemetery.

Significant works
Semyonov's outstanding work on the mechanism of chemical transformation includes an exhaustive analysis of the application of the chain theory to varied reactions (1934–1954) and, more significantly, to combustion processes. He proposed a theory of degenerate branching, which led to a better understanding of the phenomena associated with the induction periods of oxidation processes. He spent most of his career focusing and developing the field of chemical chain reactions.

Semyonov wrote two important books outlining his work. Chemical Kinetics and Chain Reactions was published in 1934, with an English edition in 1935. It was the first book in the U.S.S.R. to develop a detailed theory of unbranched and branched chain reactions in chemistry. Some Problems of Chemical Kinetics and Reactivity, first published in 1954, was revised in 1958; there are also English, American, German, and Chinese editions. He is the only Soviet/Russian Chemistry Nobel Laureate, who received the Nobel Prize in Chemistry (together with Sir Cyril Norman Hinshelwood) for his work in 1956.

Semyonov had long been a supporter of the Communist Party and the Soviet Union. After the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists accused the Soviet Union of heavy scientific censorship in 1953, he coauthored the Soviet response which denied all accusations. He is also noted as being the most famous signatory to a 1971 public letter from Soviet scientists to United States president Richard Nixon, on displeasure in the murder trial of Angela Davis.

Semyonov trained Russian organometallic chemist Alexandr Shilov, who discovered platinum catalyzed C-H activation.

Honours and awards

 * Orders of Lenin, nine times (incl. 1945, 1953, 1956, 1966, 1971, 1976, 1981 )
 * Stalin Prize (1941, 1949)
 * Honorary Member of the British Chemical Society (1943)
 * Order of the Red Banner of Labour (1946)
 * Honorary member of the Indian Academy of Sciences (1954)
 * Nobel Prize in Chemistry (1956)
 * Foreign Member of the Royal Society of London (1958)
 * Member of the German Academy of Sciences Leopoldina (1959)
 * Honorary member of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences (1961)
 * Honorary member of the New York Academy of Sciences (1962)
 * Foreign member of the United States National Academy of Sciences (1963)
 * Honorary Member of the Romanian Academy (1965)
 * Hero of Socialist Labour, twice (1966, 1976)
 * Lomonosov Gold Medal (1969)
 * Lenin Prize (1976)
 * Order of the October Revolution (1986)
 * Medal "In commemoration of the centenary of the birth of Vladimir Ilyich Lenin"
 * Mendeleev Prize
 * 5 total badges of the Order of Lenin
 * Honorary Member of The Soviet Academy of Sciences (1932)

Semyonov was also an Honorary Doctor of several universities: Oxford (1960), Brussels (1962), London (1965), Budapest Technical University (1965), Polytechnic Institute of Milan (1964) and others.

Legacy

 * In 1990, the IHF RAS was named after N. N. Semenov;
 * In 1994, a memorial plaque was unveiled in honor of Nikolay Nikolaevich Semenov on the main building of the St. Petersburg State Polytechnic University (29 Politechnicheskaya Street);
 * The memorial plaque is installed on the facade of the Main building of the A.F. Ioffe Institute of Physics and Technology in St. Petersburg (26 Politechnicheskaya str.).
 * On July 27, 1996, and one of the streets in the South-Western Administrative District of the city of Moscow on the territory of the district Yuzhnoye Butovo was given the name Academician Semenov Street;
 * In Saratov, one of the streets is named after Semenov;
 * In Tyumen, one of the streets is named after Semenov;
 * A memorial plaque is installed on the house in Moscow at 24 Frunzenskaya Embankment, where Semenov spent his last years of life;
 * The Presidium of the Russian Academy of Sciences has a Commission for the development of the scientific heritage of Academician N. N. Semenov;
 * Airliner Airbus A321 (VQ-BOI) of the airline "Aeroflot" "N. Semenov";
 * On April 5, 2019, in Moscow on the territory of National Research Nuclear University "MEPhI" a monument was erected by the sculptor Alexandra Mironova
 * At the beginning of April 2022, a monument to Academician Nikolai Semenov was unveiled in Moscow on Kosygin Street, house 4.

title: Nikolay Semyonov