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Samara Oblast

Samara Oblast (Сама́рская о́бласть, ) is a federal subject of Russia (an oblast). Its administrative center is the city of Samara. From 1935 to 1991, it was known as Kuybyshev Oblast. As of the 2021 Census, the population of the oblast was 3,172,925.

The oblast borders Tatarstan in the north, Orenburg Oblast in the east, Kazakhstan (West Kazakhstan Province) in the south, Saratov Oblast in the southwest and Ulyanovsk Oblast in the west.

It is located in 3 natural landscape zones: the forest zone (coniferous and broad-leaved forests), the basis of which is pine-oak forests, pine forests and broad-leaved forests with the participation of oak and maple. Spruce occasionally joins them. Areas of the southern taiga are found on the coast of the region. The forest-steppe zone occupies the central regions of the region and is represented by a combination of areas of broad-leaved forests, most often oak and meadow steppes. Red deer, roe deer, elk, and sometimes bears are found in these forests. The south of the region is occupied by steppes consisting of typchak and sagebrush.

History
The Samara region contains a remarkable succession of archaeological cultures from 7000 BC to 4000 BC. These sites have revealed Europe's earliest pottery (Elshanka culture), the world's oldest horse burial and signs of horse worship (the Syezzheye cemetery of Samara culture) and the earliest kurgans associated with Proto-Indo-Europeans (e.g., Krivoluchye assigned to Khvalynsk culture ).

The Russian Empire established the Samara Governorate as a guberniya in the area in 1851. It was administered from the city of Samara. During the Revolution of 1905, a rebellion took place in November that year at the village of Novaya Tsarevshchina (now Volzhsky) and spread to the village of Stary Buyan, leading to the formation of the short-lived separatist state, the Stary Buyan Republic, within the governorate. There was little local opposition to the new state, and after the failure of local police to end the rebellion, it was successfully suppressed by a punitive expedition of Cossacks and gendarmes led by the vice-governor of the governorate in Samara.

After the decree of Tsar Nicholas II on religious tolerance the Old Believers were forced to pay taxes in favour to the Orthodox Church that they believed to be heretical. The then Ministry of Interior forbade Samara's public officials to prosecute in this practice, which was contrary to the spirit of the decree.

During the Russian Civil War, the region was heavily affected by the Russian famine of 1921–1922.

Under Soviet rule most of the governorate's territory was transformed into the Middle Volga Oblast, which was established on May 14, 1928, and a year later on October 20, 1929, it was again transformed into Middle Volga Krai. On January 27, 1935, Samara and the Middle Volga Krai were renamed Kuybyshev and Kuybyshev Krai, respectively, in honor of the Bolshevik leader Valerian Kuybyshev. On December 5, 1936, Kuybyshev Krai was transformed into Kuybyshev Oblast upon the adoption of the 1936 Soviet Constitution. On January 25, 1991 by the Decree of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the RSFSR, the Kuibyshev Oblast was renamed the Samara Oblast. On April 21, 1992, the Congress of People's Deputies of Russia approved the decision of the presidium of the parliament to rename the region, amending Art. 71 of the Constitution of the RSFSR of 1978, which entered into force on May 16, 1992.

On 1 August 1997 Samara Oblast signed a power-sharing agreement with the federal government, granting it autonomy. This agreement would be abolished on 22 February 2002.

Tolyatti is the largest city in Russia which does not serve as the administrative center of a federal subject.

Demographics
Population:

Vital statistics for 2022:
 * Births: 24,947 (8.0 per 1,000)
 * Deaths: 44,876 (14.4 per 1,000)

Total fertility rate (2022): 1.33 children per woman

Life expectancy (2021): Total — 69.33 years (male — 64.62, female — 73.86)

Ethnic groups: According to the 2010 Census, the ethnic makeup of the oblast was:
 * 2,645,124 Russians (85.6%)
 * 126,124 Tatars (4.1%)
 * 84,105 Chuvash (2.7%)
 * 65,447 Mordvins (2.1%)
 * 42,169 Ukrainians (1.4%)
 * 22,981 Armenians (0.7%)
 * 123,691 people were registered from administrative databases, and could not declare an ethnicity. It is estimated that the proportion of ethnicities in this group is the same as that of the declared group.

 * Religion

According to a 2012 survey 35% of the population of Samara Oblast adheres to the Russian Orthodox Church, 7% are unaffiliated generic Christians, 1% are Orthodox Christian believers who do not belong to any church or are members of non-Russian Orthodox churches, 3% are Muslims, and 1% of the population are adherents of Rodnovery (Slavic folk religion). In addition, 30% of the population declares to be "spiritual but not religious", 13% is atheist, and a further 10% follows other religions or did not give an answer to the question.

Economy
In 1997, Samara Oblast became one of the few federal subjects to receive the approval of the President of Russia to implement external bonded loans (Presidential decree No. 1212, dated 12.10.1997 "On Creating Conditions to Conduct Loans Operations on the Internal and External Capital Markets").

Samara Oblast (or Samara Region) has several special investment sites which are built to implement new plants, industries, factories, create new jobs and increase investments in the Samara Region. In order to help Russian and foreign investors to select a site for project implementation, to provide consulting services free of charge Ministry for Economic Development, Investments and Trade of the Samara Region organized a Non-Profit Unitary Organization – Fund "Investment Promotion Agency of the Samara Region".
 * Special economic zone of industrial-production type «Togliatti»
 * Industrial Park «Preobrazhenka»
 * Industrial Park «Chapaevsk»
 * Technopark in the sphere of high technologies "Zhiguli Valley"
 * Industrial Park «Togliattisyntez»
 * Industrial Park «Stavropolskiy»

The Agency cooperates with investors on the "one-stop-shop" principle, as well as:
 * Searches for foreign partners according to the companies' priorities;
 * Provides investment consulting services and monitors the implementation of investment projects;
 * Promotes the investment opportunities of the Samara Region in Russia and foreign countries by participation in conferences, exhibitions, forums and other events.

Politics

During the Soviet period, the high authority in the oblast was shared between three persons: The first secretary of the Samara CPSU Committee (who in reality had the biggest authority), the chairman of the oblast Soviet (legislative power), and the Chairman of the oblast Executive Committee (executive power). After the abolition of Article 6 of the Constitution of the USSR in March 1990, the CPSU lost its monopoly on power. The head of the Oblast administration, and eventually the governor was appointed/elected alongside elected regional parliament.

The Charter of Samara Oblast is the fundamental law of the oblast. The Legislative Assembly of Samara Oblast is the province's standing legislative (representative) body. The Legislative Assembly exercises its authority by passing laws, resolutions, and other legal acts and by supervising the implementation and observance of the laws and other legal acts passed by it. The highest executive body is the Oblast Government, which includes territorial executive bodies such as district administrations, committees, and commissions that facilitate development and run the day to day matters of the province. The Oblast administration supports the activities of the Governor who is the highest official and acts as guarantor of the observance of the oblast Charter in accordance with the Constitution of Russia.

Governors:
 * Konstantin Titov (1991–2007)
 * Vladimir Artyakov (2007–2012)
 * Nikolay Merkushkin (2012–2017)
 * Dmitry Azarov (acting) (2017–)

Legislature
The current 7th convocation was elected in September 2021 until 2026. All 50 deputies were elected from parties: 36 from United Russia, 10 from the Communist Party of the Russian Federation, 2 from A Just Russia - For Truth, 1 from the Liberal Democratic Party of Russia, 1 from New People. Gennady Kotelnikov (United Russia) was elected chairman of the Duma.

Andrey Kislov (United Russia) was elected as the representative of the Samara provincial Duma in the Federation Council until 2026.

Executive
Since September 2017, the position of Governor of Samara Oblast has been held by Dmitry Azarov. On 25 September 2017, he was appointed acting governor by President Putin after the early resignation of Nikolay Merkushkin, and on 9 September 2018, he was elected by the United Russia party in early elections. Farit Mukhametshin has been appointed representative in the Federation Council of the Government of the Samara Region until 2023.

Geography
The region is located in the southeastern part of the European territory of Russia, in the middle reaches of the Volga, on both sides of it. This is the fifth largest region of the Volga region — it occupies an area of 53.6 thousand km2, which is 0.31% of the territory of Russia. The region stretches from north to south for 335 km, and from west to east for 315 km. The southernmost point of the region lies on the border with Kazakhstan (51°47' s. w. and 50°47' v. d.), the northernmost point is on the border with the Republic of Tatarstan (54°41's. w. and 51°23' v. d.). The westernmost point lies on the border with the Ulyanovsk region (53°22' s. w. and 47°55' v. d.), and the extreme eastern one is on the border with the Orenburg region (54°20's. w. and 52°35' v. d.). Due to the proximity of the West Kazakhstan region of Kazakhstan, part of the Bolshechnigovsky district has the status of a border territory.

Nature reserves and parks
At the end of 2012, there are protected areas of the following categories in the Samara region: state nature reserve, national parks, biosphere reserves, protected areas of regional importance, botanical gardens, therapeutic areas. At the moment, a unique network of various protected natural areas has been formed in the Samara region. It is based on protected areas of federal significance: the I. I. Sprygin Zhiguli State Nature Reserve (23,157 thousand hectares) and the Samarskaya Luka National Park (127,186 thousand hectares).

General forest cover of the region: The Sergievsky Mineral Waters resort area operates on the basis of the Sernovodsk mineral spring.

Sister relations

 * 🇭🇺 Győr-Moson-Sopron County, Hungary

title: Samara Oblast


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Walter Short

Walter Campbell Short (March 30, 1880 – September 3, 1949) was a lieutenant general (temporary rank) and major general of the United States Army and the U.S. military commander responsible for the defense of U.S. military installations in Hawaii at the time of the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941.

Early life
Short was born in 1880 in Fillmore, Illinois. The son of a doctor, he graduated from the University of Illinois in 1901. He then taught mathematics for a year at a military academy.

Pre-World War II service
He was commissioned as a second lieutenant of infantry in the U.S. Army on March 13, 1902, and assigned duty at the Presidio of San Francisco. He served in the Philippines and later Alaska, and took part in the expedition into Mexico with the 16th Infantry Regiment in 1916.

During World War I, he served on the general staff of the 1st Division and as assistant chief of staff for the 3rd Army. He was awarded the Army Distinguished Service Medal for his efforts during the war. The citation for the medal reads:

"The President of the United States of America, authorized by Act of Congress, July 9, 1918, takes pleasure in presenting the Army Distinguished Service Medal to Colonel (Infantry) Walter Campbell Short, United States Army, for exceptionally meritorious and distinguished services to the Government of the United States, in a duty of great responsibility during World War I. Attached to the Fifth Section, General Staff, General Headquarters, American Expeditionary Forces, Colonel Short rendered conspicuous service in inspecting and reporting upon front-line conditions pertaining to the work of his section. During the St. Mihiel and Meuse-Argonne operations of the 1st Army Corps, he efficiently directed the instruction and training of machine-gun units at every available opportunity during rest periods. Later, as Assistant Chief of Staff, G-5, 3d Army, he manifested the same assiduous devotion to duty in organizing schools, conducting necessary inspections, and carrying out the intensive training process."

After the war, Short became a member of the War Department General staff and served with the Far Eastern section of the Military Intelligence Division until 1924. He then attended the Army War College and after graduation served as a staff school instructor. He commanded 1st Infantry Division from 1938 to 1940 and I Corps from January 1940 to January 1941.

Hawaii
General George C. Marshall, the U.S. Army Chief of Staff, appointed Short to the Hawaiian command on February 8, 1941 and promoted him to the temporary rank of Lieutenant General.

He earned the Distinguished Service Medal and was considered to have had a successful career at that time, especially in light of his promotions during peacetime.

Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor
On December 17, 1941, General Short was removed from command of the U.S. Army's Hawaiian Department as a result of the Japanese attack on the Hawaiian Islands. Short was ordered back to Washington, D.C., by General Marshall. He reverted to his permanent rank of major general, from his temporary rank of lieutenant general, since his temporary rank was contingent on his command.

On February 28, 1942, he retired from the Army and then headed the traffic department at a Ford Motor Company plant in Dallas, Texas. He briefly returned to active duty from October 3, 1945 to February 28, 1946. He retired in 1946 and died in 1949 in Dallas of a chronic heart ailment.

Roberts Commission
The Roberts Commission, headed by U.S. Supreme Court Associate Justice Owen J. Roberts, was formed soon after the attack on the Hawaiian Islands. General Short, along with Navy Commander in Chief, U.S. Fleet and Pacific Fleet, Admiral Husband E. Kimmel, were accused of being unprepared and charged with dereliction of duty. The report charged that Short and Kimmel did not take seriously enough an earlier war warning and did not prepare for an air attack at Pearl Harbor.

In a letter dated January 24, 1941, Secretary of the Navy Frank Knox advised the Secretary of War Henry L. Stimson that the increased gravity of the Japanese situation had prompted a restudy of the problem of the security of the Pacific Fleet while in Pearl Harbor. Knox wrote: "If war eventuates with Japan, it is believed easily possible that hostilities would be initiated by a surprise attack upon the fleet or the naval base at Pearl Harbor." The letter proceeded: "The dangers envisaged in their order of importance and probability are considered to be: (1) Air bombing attack (2) Air torpedo plane attack, (3) Sabotage, (4) Submarine attack, (5) Mining, (6) Bombardment by gunfire."

Knox's letter stated the defenses against all but the first two were then satisfactory, described the probable character of an air attack and urged the Army to prepare for such an attack. It concluded with recommendations for the revision of joint defense plans with special emphasis on the coordination of Army and Navy operations against surprise aircraft raids. It also urged the conduct of joint exercises to train the forces to meet such raids.

Stimson replied February 7, 1941, that a copy of the letter was being forwarded to Short, with direction to him to cooperate with the local naval authorities in making the suggested measures effective. Admiral Kimmel and General Short received copies of these letters at about the time they assumed their commands.

The report found that had orders been complied with:
 * the aircraft warning system of the Army should have been operating;
 * the distant reconnaissance of the inshore air patrol of the Army should have been maintained;
 * the antiaircraft batteries of the Army should have been manned and supplied with ammunition; and
 * a high state of readiness of aircraft should have been in effect.

None of these conditions was in fact inaugurated or maintained for the reason that the responsible commanders failed to consult and cooperate as to necessary action based upon the warnings and to adopt measures enjoined by the orders given to them by the chiefs of the Army and Navy commands in Washington.

The Roberts Commission was not a court-martial proceeding nor a judicial tribunal. Rather, the investigations were for fact-finding. There is generally no right to "due process", in the sense of a right to counsel and to cross-examine witnesses at a fact-finding investigation.

Admiral William Harrison Standley, who served as a member of the Roberts Commission, later disavowed the report, maintaining that "these two officers were martyred" and "if they had been brought to trial, both would have been cleared of the charge."

Short's defense
In 1946 Short testified on his own behalf before Congress about the 1941 attack. Unlike some of his predecessors in Hawaii, Short was more concerned with sabotage from Japanese-Americans on Oahu. This led to Army planes parked outside of their hangars so they could be more easily guarded. However, this made them easy bombing targets and many were subsequently destroyed on the morning of the attack. In explaining his reasons for his instituting an alert against sabotage only (local "Alert One" level), General Short stated:
 * that the war warning message he received on November 27 contained nothing directing him to be prepared to meet an air raid or an all-out attack on Hawaii ("Alert Two" and "Three");
 * that he received other messages after the November 27 dispatch emphasizing measures against sabotage and subversive activities;
 * that the dispatch was a "do-don't" message which conveyed to him the impression that the avoidance of war was paramount and the greatest fear of the War Department was that some international incident might occur in Hawaii which Japan would regard as an overt act;
 * that he was looking to the Navy to provide him adequate warning of the approach of a hostile force, particularly through distant reconnaissance which was a Navy responsibility; and
 * that instituting higher level alerts would have seriously interfered with the training mission of the Hawaiian Department.

He also declared that he did not receive adequate warning and suffered from a lack of resources. He and his family attempted to get the Army to restore his rank of lieutenant general in the retired ranks on the basis that warnings from the War Department prior to the attack were vague and in conflict. He requested, but did not receive, a formal court-martial.

1999 Senate resolution
On May 25, 1999, the United States Senate passed a non-binding resolution exonerating Kimmel and Short by a 52 to 47 vote. The resolution stated they had performed their duties "competently and professionally" and that the Japanese attacks were "not a result of dereliction of duty." "They were denied vital intelligence that was available in Washington," said Senator William V. Roth, Jr. (R-DE), contending they had been made scapegoats by the Pentagon. Senator Strom Thurmond (R-SC) called Kimmel and Short "the two final victims of Pearl Harbor." The resolution was originally attached as an amendment to the Department of Defense spending bill for FY2000 (S.1059) and cleared the Congress as a whole in October 1999, urging President Bill Clinton to restore Kimmel and Short to their full wartime ranks. However, neither Clinton nor any of his successors acted on the resolution.

Movie portrayal
Short was portrayed by Jason Robards in Tora! Tora! Tora!.

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

title: Walter Short


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Ulyanovsk Oblast

Ulyanovsk Oblast (Ульяновская область) is a federal subject of Russia (an oblast). It is located in the Volga Federal District. Its administrative center is the city of Ulyanovsk. It has a population of 1,292,799 (2010 Census).

Geography

Ulyanovsk Oblast borders with Chuvashia (N), Tatarstan (NE), Samara Oblast (E), Saratov Oblast (S), Penza Oblast (W), and Mordovia (NW).

It is located on the northern edge of Central Steppes. A quarter of its territory is covered with deciduous forests; the rest is covered with steppes and meadows. The oblast is divided in half by the Volga River. Hilly areas to the west of the Volga are known as Volga Upland (elevations up to 358 m (1,175 ft) ). Eastern part of the oblast is mostly flat. The water table occupies about 6% of territory.

Ulyanovsk Oblast has moderately continental, highly volatile climate. Temperature averages at +19 °C (66 °F) in July, and −11 °C (12 °F) in January. As weather systems move in and out of the area, average daily temperatures often change more than +25 °C (77 °F) in the matter of days. Fixed snow cover is typically present from November to the beginning of April. Overnight frosts occur until late May, restricting agriculture to cold-resistant plants such as rye and winter wheat. Annual precipitation drops out 400 mm (16 inches) a year.

Nature

Ulyanovsk Oblast is located in the zones of wooded plain and broad-leaved scaffolding.

Soils are predominantly chernozem.

Forests occupy 1/4 of its territories. In the northwest — large massifs of oak forest with the participation of linden, maple; in the Transvolga region — meadow steppes, separate pine borons.

The area is inhabited by moose, marten, squirrel, hare (white and other) as well as numerous planktonic and marshy- coastal birds. Kuybyshev Reservoir is home to fish such as bream, pike-perch, carp and others. Ulyanovsk Oblast also has a concentrated wasp population.

These protected areas are found on the territory of the region: the national park Sengiley Mountains, the guarding zone of the state preserved “Volga wooded plain”, the monuments of nature Undory mineral source, relict forests etc.

History

The first settlements of Middle Volga people were established in this area of Volga more than 100,000 years ago, according to archaeological science. The presence of human groups in the Ulyanovsk Volga region in the Paleolithic show separate parking and location of stone tools and bones found in the estuary. Cheremshan Tunguz on the peninsula, on the shores of the Volga in the region of Undory resort.

In the 8th and 9th centuries Ulyanovsk Volga region became a part of the early Volga Bulgaria, as a union of nomadic Turkic and sedentary Finno-Ugric tribes.

In the late 14th and early 15th century, the devastating Central Asian ruler Tamerlane began desolation territory of the Volga Ulyanovsk. Since the late 1430s the region was a part of the Kazan Khanate. After the pacification of the territory of the future of his governorship Simbirsk gradually settled by Ruthenians, who mingled with the local Tatars.

In the late 1640s, under the leadership of Bogdan Hitrovo, construction of the Karsunsky-Simbirsk defense line began (1647-1654 biennium).

Twenty-two years after its founding, the city of Simbirsk had to withstand a siege of the Cossacks, led by Ataman Stepan Razin.

In the 18th century in connection with the expansion of the territory of the Russian state, in particular, to the east, and began to develop intensively populated southern regions of the present territory of the Ulyanovsk region. Simbirsk began to lose its status of strategic military importance, but remained the provincial center.

Russian revolution

The Bolsheviks took power in Simbirsk one and a half month after the October Revolution—December 10, 1917. In 1918, the province was at the heart of the Russian Civil War. In July 1918 Simbirsk was captured by troops of the Komuch army led by White Russian tsarist General Vladimir Kappel. But on September 12 the Bolsheviks recaptured the city, resulting in the restoration of communism. The Red Army victory was led by the "Iron Division". Simbirsk was the headquarters of the Revolutionary Military Council of the eastern front. The ammunition factory in Simbirsk was essential to ensuring the Red Army victory.

In 1924 Simbirsk was renamed Ulyanovsk. On May 14, 1928, the Ulyanovsk Governorate of the RSFSR was abolished. The Province, together with Penza, Samara and Orenburg became part of the newly formed Middle Volga region.

World War II

Since the beginning of the Great Patriotic War in Ulyanovsk, being the rear, the evacuated enterprises, institutions and people from the western regions of the country, from Moscow and Leningrad. January 19, 1943 from several districts of Kuybyshev and Penza Oblasts formed Ulyanovsk Oblast.

Post-war development
In the 1950 and 1960s, new enterprises were created in the region (factory of heavy and unique machines, mechanical plant, Dimitrovgrad Research Institute of Atomic Reactors, etc.), and infrastructure was built, including aroad bridge over the Volga River and Ulyanovsk Airport. In 1970, the then General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union Leonid Brezhnev, inaugurated memorial museum of Lenin. On 30 October 1997, Ulyanovsk, alongside Astrakhan, Kirov, Murmansk, and Yaroslavl signed a power-sharing agreement with the government of Russia, granting it autonomy. The agreement was abolished on 31 December 2001.

Politics

During the Soviet period, the high authority in the oblast was shared between three persons: The first secretary of the Ulyanovsk CPSU Committee (who in reality had the biggest authority), the chairman of the oblast Soviet (legislative power), and the chairman of the oblast Executive Committee (executive power). Since 1991, CPSU lost all the power, and the head of the Oblast administration, and eventually the governor was appointed/elected alongside elected regional parliament.

The Charter of Ulyanovsk Oblast is the fundamental law of the region. The Legislative Assembly of Ulyanovsk Oblast is the province's standing legislative (representative) body. The Legislative Assembly exercises its authority by passing laws, resolutions, and other legal acts and by supervising the implementation and observance of the laws and other legal acts passed by it. The highest executive body is the Oblast Administration, which includes territorial executive bodies such as district administrations, committees, and commissions that facilitate development and run the day to day matters of the province. The Oblast administration supports the activities of the Governor who is the highest official and acts as guarantor of the observance of the oblast Charter in accordance with the Constitution of Russia.

Legislative
Since 1995, the legislature in the region has been represented by a unicameral parliament - the Legislative Assembly of Ulyanovsk Oblast. The leader is the chairman of the Legislative Assembly. The Legislative Assembly is elected by popular vote every five years. The first two convocations were elected by the majority system - from 25 districts, one deputy each. The current fifth, fourth and third convocations were elected by the majority-list system. One half (18) of the deputies are from party lists and the other half are from 18 constituencies.

Chairmen of the Legislative Assembly: Sergey Ryabukhin (1/1996 - 6/2001), Boris Zotov (7/2001 - 2013), Anatoly Bakayev (14/09/2013 - 2018), Valery Malyshev (19/09/2018 - present).

In the 2003 elections to the Legislative Assembly of the third convocation, 3 parties and 1 bloc passed (overcame the 5% barrier):
 * United Russia — 27.42%
 * People for Frolych — 12.75%
 * Communist Party of the Russian Federation — 11.25%
 * Liberal Democratic Party of Russia — 11.1%
 * Independent — 12.75%

In the 2008 elections to the Legislative Assembly, 4 parties passed (overcame the 7% threshold):
 * United Russia — 66.36%
 * CPRF — 15.95%
 * A Just Russia — 7.77%
 * LDPR — 7.39

14 representatives of United Russia and 1 representative of A Just Russia passed through single-mandate constituencies.

In the 2013 elections to the Legislative Assembly, 3 parties passed:
 * United Russia
 * CPRF
 * LDPR

Total deputies in parliament:
 * United Russia — 31
 * CPRF — 4
 * LDPR — 1

Federal elections in the region
Until 2000, the Communist Party of the Russian Federation invariably won the federal elections in the Ulyanovsk region: for example, in 1995 and 1999, the Communists won the parliamentary elections with a result of more than 40%; in 1996, Gennady Zyuganov won both rounds of the presidential elections. The turning point occurred in 2000: Vladimir Putin won the March presidential elections in the region. The 2003, 2007 and 2011 State Duma elections were won by the United Russia party, and Dmitry Medvedev won the 2008 presidential election. On 4 March 2012, Vladimir Putin won again, gaining 58.18% of the votes of the Oblast's voters.

Demographics
Population:

55% of residents of Ulyanovsk Oblast live in two cities with population above 25,000—Ulyanovsk and Dimitrovgrad.

The ethnic composition is as follows:
 * 73.6% Russian
 * 12.2% Tatar
 * 7.7% Chuvash
 * 3.2% Mordva
 * 3.3% others
 * 67,890 people were registered from administrative databases, and could not declare an ethnicity. It is estimated that the proportion of ethnicities in this group is the same as that of the declared group.

Vital statistics for 2022:
 * Births: 9,043 (7.5 per 1,000)
 * Deaths: 18,047 (15.0 per 1,000)

Total fertility rate (2022):

1.32 children per woman

Life expectancy (2021):

Total — 69.05 years (male — 64.21, female — 73.90)

Education

 * Ulyanovsk State University, established in 1988 as a branch of Moscow State University. At the present time, UlSU is one of the largest higher educational institutions in the Volga region, comprising 6 institutes, 6 independent faculties, 2 affiliates, 5 junior colleges, 6 learning centers. UlSU enrolls about 15 thousand students annually, among them 125 foreign citizens from 20 countries of the world.
 * Ulyanovsk State Technical University, established in 1957 as Ulyanovsk Polytech University. Today Ulyanovsk State Technical University features over 14,000 students on different education programs at 10 faculties and 48 departments.
 * Ulyanovsk State Pedagogical University, established in 1932.
 * Ulyanovsk State Agricultural Academy, established in 1943.
 * Ulyanovsk Higher Civil Aviation School, founded in 1935 as a training center, designed for training and retraining of flight crews of civil aircraft. In 1992, raised its status to the present. Has branches in Krasny Kut, Saratov Oblast and Sasovo, Ryazan Oblast. When it has Main industry museum of civil aviation history (Ulyanovsk aircraft museum), established in 1983.

There is also a number of technical and medical colleges in Ulyanovsk.

Economy

Ulyanovsk Oblast is part of the Volga economic region.

Ulyanovsk Oblast has an abundance of land, water, forest, and mineral resources. Ulyanovsk Region also has substantial reserves of other raw materials used in industry, such as various kinds of sand, cement materials, clays, and peat. One of the largest quartz sand deposits in the CIS, the Tashlinskoe deposit, is located in the region.

Ulyanovsk and Dimitrovgrad are industrial cities and contain a number of large plants and factories. Rural part of Ulyanovsk Oblast is agricultural and is focused primarily on animal husbandry, to the lesser extent on crop farming. There are two resorts in Ulyanovsk Oblast territory - "Bely Yar" and "Dubki".

City of Ulyanovsk is a major, diversified, industrial hub for aircraft and auto industries.

The UAZ automobile manufacturing plant, now a subsidiary of Sollers JSC; Aviastar-SP Aircraft Company, now a part of United Aircraft Corporation;  Scientific and Production Association "Mars" (manufactures industrial control systems for the Russian Navy), now part of state-owned conglomerate Agat; Ulyanovsk Cartridge Works (manufactures ammunition for firearms); Ulyanovsk Motor Plant (russian.Ульяновский моторный завод, UMZ) and Ulyanovsk Mechanical Plant (russian.Ульяновский механический завод, UMZ, subsidiary of JSC Almaz-Antey) are based in the city along with a variety of light industry and food-processing enterprises. Other developed sectors include the flour-milling, meat, butter-making, starch and molasses, distilling, building material, and woodworking industries.

In addition, a global, international airline for unique and heavy cargo, Volga-Dnepr Airlines is based in the city too.

There are many manufacturing facilities of foreign corporations such as Legrand (company), Mars, Incorporated, Takata-Petri, Anadolu Efes S.K., ALFA (Mexico) and others.

Banking is mostly represented by national banks such as Sberbank, VTB Bank, Alfa-Bank, Bin Bank, Ak Bars Bank, MDM Bank, Trust Bank and also regional banks from Ulyanovsk Oblast.

Ulyanovsk has also a strong military base presence in town. The 31st Airborne Brigade of the Russian Airborne Troops of the armed forces is based in Ulyanovsk.

Tourism and Hospitality Industry

Tourism is a growing industry in this region because of Volga micro-climate and historical significance of Simbirsk. Hilton Hotel Group and Marriott Hotels & Resorts are building their hotels in the downtown area.

The region of Undory, a driving distance from Ulyanovsk is famous for its spas and mineral water. The city offers many options for sports enthusiasts. The countryside is ideal for outdoor and water sports. The springs of Undory have been known for more than 200 years. The water at spa is rich in sodium chloride, and comes from artesian wells.

Sports
Bandy is traditionally the most popular sport in Ulyanovsk Oblast. Volga plays in the Russian Bandy Super League. The other club Simbirsk plays in the 2nd division. An indoor arena for bandy, Volga-Sport-Arena, has been built, as one of the first in Russia. It has a capacity of 5 000. The outdoor stadium will be modernised and have a capacity of 18 000. The 2016 Bandy World Championship is being played in Ulyanovsk. and Dimitrovgrad.

In association football, FC Volga plays in "Urals-Volga" zone of the Russian Second Division.

Ulyanovsk also hosted matches of first qualifying round UEFA Women's Under-17 Championship 2014. Matches were held at "Trud" Football Stadium in the downtown Ulyanovsk.

Overall sports get a lot of support from the Ulyanovsk Oblast government.

Sister relationships

 * Nghệ An Province, Vietnam

title: Ulyanovsk Oblast


text:
Template talk:European Free Trade Association (EFTA)

Comments
A special variant has been created for Switzerland.
 * For those that are wondering why - Switzerland is not a member of the European Economic Area (voted no in a referendum sometime in the last couple of years, IIRC), whilst the other three are. Pete/Pcb21 (talk) 12:37, 22 Feb 2004 (UTC)


text:
Kurgan Oblast

Kurgan Oblast (Курга́нская о́бласть) is a federal subject of Russia (an oblast). Its administrative center is the city of Kurgan. According to the 2021 Census, the population was 776,661, down from 910,807 recorded in the 2010 Census.

History
Formed by Decree of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR of February 6, 1943. The region included 32 districts of the eastern part of the Chelyabinsk region and 4 districts of the Omsk region with a total population of 975,000. Recipient of the Order of Lenin (1959).

Geography
Kurgan Oblast is located in Southern Russia and is part of the Urals Federal District. It shares borders with Chelyabinsk Oblast to the west, Sverdlovsk Oblast to the north-west, Tyumen Oblast to the north-east, and Kazakhstan (Kostanay and North Kazakhstan Region) to the south.

Climate
The oblast has a severe continental climate with long cold winters and warm summers with regular droughts. The average January temperature is -18 C, and the average temperature in the warmest month (July) is +19 C. Annual precipitation is about 400 mm.

Politics
During the Soviet period, the high authority in the oblast was shared between three persons: The first secretary of the Kurgan CPSU Committee (who in reality had the biggest authority), the chairman of the oblast Soviet (legislative power), and the Chairman of the oblast Executive Committee (executive power). Since 1991, CPSU lost all the power, and the head of the Oblast administration, and eventually the governor was appointed/elected alongside elected regional parliament.

The Charter of Kurgan Oblast is the fundamental law of the region. The Kurgan Oblast Duma is the province's standing legislative (representative) body. The Oblast Duma consists of 34 members and exercises its authority by passing laws, resolutions, and other legal acts and by supervising the implementation and observance of the laws and other legal acts passed by it. The highest executive body is the Oblast Government, which includes territorial executive bodies such as district administrations, committees, and commissions that facilitate development and run the day to day matters of the province. The Oblast administration supports the activities of the Governor who is the highest official and acts as guarantor of the observance of the oblast Charter in accordance with the Constitution of Russia.

After the last elections held in 2015 the United Russia Party currently holds the majority of seats in the Oblast Duma. Elections of deputies of the Kurgan Regional Duma of the VII convocation are scheduled for 2020.

Economy
Kurgan Oblast borders on the oil- and gas-bearing districts of Tyumen Oblast and is also close to similar districts in Tomsk Oblast. Large oil and gas pipelines pass through its territory, and Ural and Siberian oil refineries are fairly close. The main industrial centers are Kurgan, and Shadrinsk.

The oblast does not have large economic mineral reserves; therefore, it has developed mainly on the basis of subindustries associated with processing of agricultural production and assembly and packaging of finished products. The food industry is well developed here, with meat-packing plants, mills, creameries, and powdered milk factories.

Modern large-scale industry began developing during World War II, when sixteen enterprises from western regions of the country were evacuated here in 1941–1942.

Demographics
Population:

Russians (823,722) are the largest ethnic group in the Kurgan Oblast, making up 92.5% of the population. Other prominent ethnic groups in the oblast include Tatars (17,017) at 1.9%, Bashkirs (12,257) at 1.4%, Kazakhs (11,939) 1.3%, and Ukrainians (7,080) at 0.8%. Other ethnicities are 2.1%. Additionally, 20,017 people were registered from administrative databases, and could not declare an ethnicity. It is estimated that the proportion of ethnicities in this group is the same as that of the declared group.

Vital statistics for 2022:
 * Births: 6,353 (7.9 per 1,000)
 * Deaths: 12,592 (15.7 per 1,000)

Total fertility rate (2022):

1.68 children per woman

Life expectancy (2021):

Total — 68.29 years (male — 63.29, female — 73.48)

Religion
According to a 2012 survey 28.4% of the population of Kurgan Oblast adheres to the Russian Orthodox Church, 6% are nondenominational Christians (with the exclusion of such-defined Protestant churches), 2% are adherents of Islam, 1% are adherents of the Slavic native faith (Rodnovery), and 0.4% are adherents of forms of Hinduism (Vedism, Krishnaism or Tantrism). In addition, 36% of the population declares to be "spiritual but not religious", 14% is atheist, and 12.2% follows other religions or did not give an answer to the question.

Notable people

 * Yuri Balashov (born March 12, 1949), chess grandmaster
 * Oleg Bogomolov (born October 4, 1950), former Governor of Kurgan Oblast
 * Fyodor Bronnikov (1827–1902), painter
 * Dmitri Bushmanov (born September 30, 1978), association football player
 * Aleksandr Cherepanov (November 21, 1895 – July 6, 1984), lieutenant-general
 * Dumitru Diacov (born February 10, 1952), Moldovan politician
 * Viktor Dubynin (February 1, 1943 – November 22, 1992), Army General
 * Maxim Fadeev (born May 6, 1968), singer-songwriter, composer and producer
 * Pavel Fitin (December 28, 1907 – December 24, 1971), director of Soviet intelligence
 * Filipp Golikov (July 30, 1900 – July 29, 1980), Marshal of the Soviet Union
 * Sergey Gritsevets (July 19, 1909 – September 16, 1939), major, pilot and twice recipient of the honorary title of Hero of the Soviet Union.
 * Gavriil Ilizarov (June 15, 1921 – July 24, 1992), physician
 * Vyacheslav Kamoltsev (born December 14, 1971), association football player
 * Svetlana Kapanina (born December 22, 1968), aerobatic pilot
 * Anatoly Karelin (July 16, 1922 – January 3, 1974), Major General of aviation
 * Leonid Khabarov (born May 8, 1947), Colonel
 * Larisa Korobeynikova (born March 26, 1987), fencer
 * Evgeni Krasilnikov (born April 7, 1965), volleyball player
 * Leonid Krasin (July 3 (15), 1870 – November 24, 1926), politician and diplomat
 * Ivan Kurpishev (born March 2, 1969), powerlifter
 * Dmitri Loskov (born February 12, 1974), association football player
 * Aleksey Merzlyakov (March 22, 1778 - August 7, 1830), poet, critic, translator, and professor
 * Yana Romanova (born May 11, 1983), biathlete
 * Sergei Rublevsky (born October 15, 1974), chess grandmaster
 * Mikhail Ryumin (September 1, 1913 – July 22, 1954), Deputy Head of the Ministry for State Security (Soviet Union)
 * Yulia Savicheva (born 14 February 1987), singer
 * Ivan Shadr (February 11, 1887 – April 3, 1941), sculptor and medalist
 * Alexander Solonik (October 16, 1960 – January 31, 1997), hitman
 * Elena Temnikova (born April 18, 1985), singer
 * Alla Vazhenina (born May 29, 1983), weightlifter
 * Aleksandr Vinogradov (September 9, 1930 – June 14, 2011), journalist and writer
 * Sergei Vinogradov (April 16, 1958 – December 16, 2010), journalist, translator and writer
 * Kirill A. Yevstigneyev (February 17, 1917 – August 29, 1996), Major General of aviation

title: Kurgan Oblast


text:
Sverdlovsk Oblast

Sverdlovsk Oblast (Свердловская область) is a federal subject (an oblast) of Russia located in the Ural Federal District. Its administrative center is the city of Yekaterinburg, formerly known as Sverdlovsk. Its population is 4,268,998 (according to the 2021 Census).

Geography
Most of the oblast is spread over the eastern slopes of the Middle and North Urals and the Western Siberian Plain. Only in the southwest does the oblast stretch onto the western slopes of the Ural Mountains.

The highest mountains all rise in the North Urals, Konzhakovsky Kamen at 1569 m and Denezhkin Kamen at 1492 m. The Middle Urals is mostly hilly country with no discernible peaks; the mean elevation is closer to 300 to 500 m above sea level. Principal rivers include the Tavda, the Tura, the Chusovaya, and the Ufa, the latter two being tributaries of the Kama.

Sverdlovsk Oblast borders with, clockwise from the west, Perm Krai, the Komi Republic, Khanty–Mansi Autonomous Okrug, Tyumen Oblast, Kurgan, and Chelyabinsk Oblasts, and the Republic of Bashkortostan.

The area is traversed by the northeasterly line of equal latitude and longitude.

Natural resources
Rich in natural resources, the oblast is especially famous for metals (iron, copper, gold, platinum), minerals (asbestos, gemstones, talcum), marble and coal. It is mostly here that the bulk of Russian industry was concentrated in the 18th and 19th centuries.

Climate
The area has continental climate patterns, with long cold winters (average temperatures reaching -15 C to -25 C on the Western Siberian Plain) and short warm summers. Only in the southeast of the oblast do temperatures reach +30 C in July.

Early history
The territory of the region has been inhabited since ancient times. Numerous sites of ancient people were discovered, dating from the Paleolithic to the Iron Age. The Upper Paleolithic includes the Garinsky site on the right bank of the Sosva river near the village of Gari, the site in the Shaitansky grotto, and the site in the Bezymyanny cave (X millennium BC). In 1890, the 11 thousand years old (Mesolithic) Shigir idol was discovered.

A settlement and a burial ground in the Kalmatsky Brod tract are located on the right bank of the Iset river and date back to the Sarmatian time (from the 3rd century BC to the 2nd century AD). They belong to the Kalmak archaeological culture. In the Kalmatsky Brod burial ground, the skeletal skulls were strongly deformed by tight bandaging in early childhood, which indicates the penetration of steppe ethnic elements to the north.

There are numerous pictograms on the Koptelovsky stone, on the Oblique stone, on the Two-eyed stone, Starichnaya, Serginskaya, the rock paintings of the Bronze Age on the Neyva River, Tagil River (villages Brekhovaya, Gaevaya, Komelskaya), rock carvings on Shaitan-Kamen on the right bank of the Rezh river tied to indigenous Ural population, possibly speakers of a Ugric language. The Gostkovskaya Pisanitsa refers to the Middle Ages.

Medieval history and Russian expansion
Before the first Russian colonists arrived to the region, it was populated by various Turkic and Ugrian tribes. By the 16th century, when the Middle Urals were under influence of various Tatar khanates, the strongest local state was the Vogul Pelym principality with its center in Pelym.

The Russian conquest of the Khanate of Kazan in the 1550s paved the way further east, which was now free from Tatar depredations (see Yermak Timofeyevich). The first surviving Russian settlements in the area date back to the late 16th – early 17th centuries (Verkhoturye, 1598; Turinsk, 1600; Irbit, 1633; Alapayevsk, 1639). At that time, those small trading posts were governed under Siberian administration in Tobolsk. After the 1708 administrative reform, Verkhoturye, Pelym and Turinsk became a part of the new Siberian Governorate, in 1737 their territories were assigned to the Kazan Governorate.

Rise of the mining-metallurgical era
During the 18th century, rich resources of iron and coal made Ural an industrial heartland of Russia. After getting control over Ural mines, the Demidov family put the region in the forefront of Russian industrialization. Yekaterinburg, Nevyansk and Tagil ironworks, founded in the 1700s to 1720s, soon joined the ranks of the major producers in Europe. Throughout the 18th and 19th century those newly founded factory towns enjoyed a status of special mining-metallurgical districts allowed to have a certain rate of financial and proprietary autonomy. During the 1781 reform middle Ural finally got its own regional administration in the form of the Perm Governorate.

When in 1812 the Russian government legalized gold digging for its citizens, Middle Ural became a center of gold mining. Entrepreneurs of the Perm Governorate also started the gold rush in West Siberia, soon Yekaterinburgers began to dominate the Russian market of precious metals and gemstones.

After the emancipation reform of 1861, major Middle Uralian industries that were heavily dependent on serf labor entered decline, although it also allowed light industry to thrive. In 1878, Perm and Yekaterinburg were connected with a railroad, in 1888, railroads reached Tyumen, and ultimately, in 1897, Yekaterinburg joined the Trans-Siberian network. Emergence of railroad transportation helped to revitalize economy of Ural.

Soviet Ural
The Bolsheviks established their power in Yekaterinburg and Perm during the first days of the October Revolution of 1917. In early 1918 the dethroned Czar Nicholas II and his family were transferred under custody to Yekaterinburg. Local Bolsheviks decided autonomously to execute the royal family on July 17, 1918, to prevent its rescue of by the approaching White Army forces. Ten days later Yekaterinburg was captured by the Czechoslovak troops of Sergei Wojciechowski. For the next year the Anti-bolshevik forces took control over the region. On 19 August 1918, Provisional Government of Ural was formed in Yekaterinburg by a coalition of liberal and democratic socialist parties, it was supposed to serve as a buffer between the Komuch and Provisional Siberian governments. After the Kolchak coup d'état in Omsk in November 1918, the Government of Ural was disbanded.

In July 1919, in the course of the Yekaterinburg offense, Yekaterinburg and the surrounding areas were recaptured by the Red Army forces under command of Vasily Shorin. On the July 15th, the Perm Governorate was split by the Soviets and the east, for the first time in history, became a separate region, the Yekaterinburg Governorate. It was soon abolished and replaced by the Ural Oblast (1923-1934).

In the 1930s many industrial enterprises were established and built with the help of forced labour. Local industry received another impetus during World War II, when important producing facilities were relocated here from the European part of Russia to safeguard them from the advancing Germans (for example, IMZ-Ural, Kamensk-Uralsky Metallurgical Works). In the postwar period much of the region was off-limits to foreigners. It was over Sverdlovsk that the American U-2 spy plane pilot Gary Powers was shot down on May 1, 1960, while on a reconnaissance mission.

In 1979, there was an anthrax outbreak caused by an accident in a facility to develop biological weapons.

Post-Soviet transition
In 1993, Governor Eduard Rossel responded to perceived economic inequality by attempting to create a "Ural Republic." Sverdlovsk led the "Urals Five" (Kurgan Oblast, Orenburg Oblast, Perm Krai, Chelyabinsk Oblast and Sverdlovsk) in a call for greater regional power. They argued that the oblasts deserved as much power as the ethnic homeland republics. The Urals Republic Constitution went into effect on October 27, 1993. Then Russian President Boris Yeltsin dissolved the Urals Republic and the Sverdlovsk Parliament 10 days later (on November 9).

Demographics
Population:

Vital statistics for 2022:
 * Births: 39,958 (9.4 per 1,000)
 * Deaths: 59,316 (13.9 per 1,000)

Total fertility rate (2022):

1.56 children per woman

Life expectancy (2021):

Total — 68.79 years (male — 63.72, female — 73.80)

Ethnic groups
There were twenty-one recognized ethnic groups of more than two thousand persons each in the oblast. Residents identified themselves as belonging to a total of 148 different ethnic groups, including:
 * 3,684,843 Russians (90.6%);
 * 143,803 Tatars (3.5%);
 * 35,563 Ukrainians (0.9%);
 * 31,183 Bashkirs (0.8%);
 * 23,801 Mari (0.6%);
 * 14,914 Germans (0.4%);
 * 14,215 Azerbaijanis (0.3%);
 * 13,789 Udmurts (0.3%);
 * 11,670 Belarusians (0.3%);
 * 11,510 Chuvash (0.26%);
 * 11,501 Armenians (0.3%);
 * 11,138 Tajiks (0.3%);
 * 9,702 Mordovians (0.22%);
 * 9,358 Uzbeks (0.2%);

232,978 people were registered from administrative databases, and could not declare an ethnicity. It is estimated that the proportion of ethnicities in this group is the same as that of the declared group.

Religion
Christianity is the largest religion in Sverdlovsk Oblast. According to a 2012 survey 43% of the population of Sverdlovsk Oblast adheres to the Russian Orthodox Church, 5% are nondenominational Christians (excluding Protestant churches), 3% are Muslims, 2% are Orthodox Christian believers without belonging to any Church or are members of other Orthodox churches, 1% are adherents of the Slavic native faith (Rodnovery), and 0.3% are adherents of forms of Hinduism (Vedism, Krishnaism or Tantrism). In addition, 36% of the population declares to be "spiritual but not religious", and 9.7% is atheist.

Education
The most important institutions of higher education include Ural Federal University, Ural State Medical University, Ural State University of Economics, Ural State Law University, Ural State Mining University and Ural State Academy of Architecture and Arts, all located in the capital Yekaterinburg.

Politics
The oblast's Charter, adopted on 17 December 1994, with subsequent amendments, establishes the oblast government. The Governor is the chief executive, who appoints the Government, consisting of ministries and departments. The Chairman of the Government, commonly referred to as the Prime Minister, is appointed with the consent of the lower house of the legislature, a process similar to the appointment of the federal Prime Minister. But the Governor cannot nominate the same candidate more than twice, yet he/she can dismiss the house after three failed attempts to appoint the Premier.

The Legislative Assembly is the regional parliament of Sverdlovsk Oblast. Until 2011, it was a bicameral legislature consisting of the Oblast Duma, the lower house, and the House of Representatives, the upper house. Before the reform, members of the legislature served four-year terms with half of the Duma re-elected every two years. The Duma (28 members) was elected in party lists. The 21 members of the House of Representatives were elected in single-seat districts in a first-past-the-post system. The Legislative Assembly was the first bicameral legislature outside an autonomous republic, and the first regional legislature in Russia to elect members based on both party lists and single-seat districts. As of 2021, the Legislative Assembly is a unicameral legislature with a total of 50 seats, with half of the members elected by single-mandate constituencies and the other half elected in party lists for five-year terms.

Compliance with the Charter is enforced by the Charter Court. The existence of such regional courts in Russia, formed and functioning outside the federal judiciary, although challenged, has been upheld and persisted successfully in most constituent members of the Federation where they were established.

Until President Putin's reforms of 2004, the Governor was elected by direct vote for terms of four years. Eduard Rossel has been the only elected governor (first elected governor for an oblast in Russia) since 1995 (appointed in 1991 and dismissed in 1993 by President Yeltsin), re-elected in 1999 and 2003.

Since 2012, the oblast's Governor is Yevgeny Kuyvashev.

Elections
In the 1990s, the Oblast's population was distinguished by relatively high support for parties and candidates of the right and democratic persuasion. In the 1996 presidential election, Boris Yeltsin, a native of the region who lived in Sverdlovsk until the 1980s, won over 70% of the vote. In the regional elections in 2010 in the Sverdlovsk Oblast, United Russia received minimal support relative to other regions - only 39.79% of votes.

Economy and transportation
Even though it could do with modernizing, the region's industries are quite diverse. 12% of Russia's iron and steel industry is still concentrated in Sverdlovsk oblast. Iron and copper are mined and processed here, the logging industry and wood-processing are important, too.

The largest companies in the region include Ural Mining and Metallurgical Company, UralVagonZavod, Enel Russia, Nizhniy Tagil Iron and Steel Works, Federal Freight.

Transport
Yekaterinburg is a prominent road, rail and air hub in the Ural region. As the economic slump subsided, several European airlines started or resumed flights to the city. These include Lufthansa, British Airways, CSA, Turkish Airlines, Austrian Airlines and Finnair. Malév Hungarian Airlines used to be among those carriers but they had to drop their flights to SVX (IATA airport code for Sverdlovsk) after a few months.

The Alapaevsk narrow-gauge railway serves the communities around Alapayevsk.

Sister relationships

 * Bà Rịa–Vũng Tàu province, Vietnam
 * Harbin, China

Notable people

 * Vladik Dzhabarov, Russian cyclist
 * Andrey Fedyaev, Russian cosmonaut

title: Sverdlovsk Oblast


text:
Eqbal Ahmad

Eqbal Ahmad (1933 – 11 May 1999) was a Pakistani political scientist, writer and academic known for his anti-war activism, his support for resistance movements globally and academic contributions to the study of the Near East. Born in Bihar, British India, Ahmad migrated to Pakistan as a child and went on to study economics at the Forman Christian College. After graduating, he worked briefly as an army officer and was wounded in the First Kashmir War in 1948. He participated in the Algerian Revolution, then studied the Vietnam War and U.S. imperialism, becoming an early opponent of the war upon his return to the U.S. in the mid-1960s.

While highly regarded in radical circles of South Asia and left-wing circles more generally, Ahmad was a controversial figure. According to Pervez Hoodbhoy, warrants of arrest and death sentences were put on him during successive martial law governments in Pakistan. Although he was indicted in 1971 on charges of conspiring to kidnap Henry Kissinger (who was then President Nixon's National Security Advisor), the case was eventually dismissed. Kabir Babar called Ahmad "one of the most outstanding thinkers ever to originate from the Subcontinent. His analyses of the major political events and trends of the 20th century were noted for their astuteness and predictive power." Edward Said listed Ahmad as one of the two most important influences on his intellectual development, praising the latter's writings on South Asia especially as informative.

Early life and education
Eqbal Ahmad was born in the village of Irki in the Gaya District (now Magadh Division) of the Indian state of Bihar. When he was a young boy, his father was murdered over a land dispute in his presence by a hindu group. During the partition of India in 1947, he and his elder brother migrated to Pakistan on foot.

Eqbal Ahmad graduated from Forman Christian College in Lahore, Pakistan, in 1951 with a degree in economics. After serving briefly as an army officer, he enrolled at Occidental College in California in 1957, as a Rotary Fellow. In 1958, he went to Princeton University, where he studied political science and Middle Eastern history until earning his PhD in 1965. During his time at Princeton, Ahmad travelled to Tunisia and Algeria as part of his doctoral dissertation. In Algiers, he supported the revolution, leading to his subsequent arrest in France. Ahmad went on to teach at the University of Illinois and at Cornell University until 1968. During this time, Ahmad also became a prominent fellow of the anti-war Institute for Policy Studies.

His vocal support of Palestinian rights during the 1967 war led to his isolation within the academic community, causing him to leave Cornell. From 1968 to 1972, he worked as a fellow at the University of Chicago. During this time, Ahmad became a strong activist against the Vietnam War, which lead to his being charged as part of the Harrisburg Seven in January 1971. After the trial Ahmad was acquitted of all charges in 1972. He moved to Amsterdam in 1973. In 1974, he founded and directed the Transnational Institute, until 1975. In 1982, he moved back to the United States and joined the Hampshire College as a tenured professor and taught there until becoming Professor Emeritus in 1997.

In 1990, he began splitting his time between Islamabad and Amherst and also began writing for Dawn, and worked unsuccessfully to establish a liberal arts college named after Ibn Khaldun in Islamabad. Ahmad was one of the most prominent left-wing academics in both Pakistan and the United States. His legacy is that of strong opposition to militarism, bureaucracy, nuclear arms and ideological rigidity, while a strong supporter of democracy and self-determination. Even though a little-known figure within Pakistan, Ahmad bestowed a strong legacy within intellectual circles both in and outside the country.

Career
From 1960 to 1963, Ahmad lived in North Africa, working primarily in Algeria, where he joined the National Liberation Front and worked with Frantz Fanon and some Algerian nationalists who were fighting a war of liberation against the French in Algeria. He was offered an opportunity to join the first independent Algerian government, but refused in favour of life as an independent intellectual. Instead, he returned to the United States. Eqbal Ahmad was fluent in Urdu, English, Persian and Arabic. When he returned to the United States, Eqbal Ahmad taught at the University of Illinois at Chicago (1964–65) and Cornell University in the school of Labour Relations (1965–68). Palestinian right of return Palestinian rights during the 1967 Arab-Israeli war 1967 war lead to his isolation within the academic community, causing him to leave Cornell. From 1968 to 1972, he worked as a fellow at the University of Chicago and the Adlai Stevenson Institute in Chicago. In 1971, Eqbal Ahmad was indicted as one of the Harrisburg Seven as a result of his activism against the Vietnam War alongside the anti-war Catholic priest Philip Berrigan, Berrigan's future wife, Sister Elizabeth McAlister, and four other Catholic pacifists, on charges of conspiracy to kidnap Henry Kissinger. After fifty-nine hours of deliberations, the jury declared a mistrial and Ahmad was acquitted of all charges in 1972. During these years, he became known as one of the earliest and most vocal opponents of American policies in Vietnam and Cambodia.

Eqbal Ahmad's friend, author Stuart Schaar suggested in a book on Eqbal Ahmad that he had warned the US against attacking Iraq in 1990. He had correctly predicted that Saddam's fall would bring in sectarian violence and chaos in the region. Eqbal Ahmad had also interviewed Osama bin Laden in Peshawar in 1986. In the early 1990s, he had predicted that considering the ideology of Osama Bin Laden, he would eventually turn against his then allies US and Pakistan.

From 1972 to 1982, Ahmad was Senior Fellow at the Institute for Policy Studies. From 1973 to 1975, he served as the first director of its overseas affiliate, the Transnational Institute in Amsterdam. In 1982, Ahmad joined the faculty at Hampshire College, in Amherst, Massachusetts, a progressive school which was the first college in the nation to divest from South Africa. There, he taught world politics and political science. In the early 1990s, Ahmad was granted a parcel of land in Pakistan by Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif's government, to build an independent, alternative university, named Khaldunia University.

Upon his retirement from Hampshire in 1997, he settled permanently in Pakistan, where he continued to write a weekly column, for Dawn, Pakistan's oldest English-language newspaper. He continued to promote social democracy for Muslim countries like in the Scandinavian countries to prevent extremism, poverty and injustice in those countries.

Eqbal Ahmad was the founding chancellor of the then newly established Textile Institute of Pakistan, a textile-oriented science, design and business-degree-awarding institute. The institute professes to be driven by the values Eqbal Ahmad stood for and awards its most prestigious honour, the Dr. Eqbal Ahmed Achievement Award, to one graduate unanimously deemed by the faculty as reflective of Eqbal Ahmad's values at its annual convocation.

Death and legacy
Eqbal Ahmad died of heart failure on 11 May 1999 at an Islamabad hospital in Pakistan, where he was being treated for colon cancer. He had married Julie Diamond in 1969, a teacher and a writer from New York and they had one daughter, Dohra.

Since his death, a memorial lecture series has been established at Hampshire College in his honour. Speakers have included Kofi Annan, Edward Said, Noam Chomsky, and Arundhati Roy. Ahmad was admired as "an intellectual unintimidated by power or authority". He collaborated with such left-wing journalists, activists, and thinkers as Chomsky, Said, Howard Zinn, Ibrahim Abu-Lughod, Richard Falk, Fredric Jameson, Alexander Cockburn and Daniel Berrigan. Ahmad influenced several left-leaning activists including Chomsky, Zinn, Abu-Lughod, Richard Falk, Pervez Hoodbhoy, Cockburn, Said and Roy. Ahmad is credited for his insight into Islamic terrorism; he publicly criticised global support for the Islamic fundamentalist groups in Afghanistan.

Noam Chomsky in an article, after Ahmad's death in 1999, described Ahmad as a "treasured friend, trusted comrade, counsellor and teacher" and said that Ahmad describes with warmth and feeling the Islamic Sufi tradition that he remembers from his childhood in a village in Bihar, where Islamic Sufi admiration among the public united Hindus and Muslims. Simple and unpretentious, 'they preached by example', living 'by service and by setting an example of treating people equally without discrimination'. The Sufis appealed to the most oppressed, offering 'social mobility, as well as dignity and equality to the poor'. Sufis regarded the idea of nationalism as an anti-Islamic ideology that 'proceeds to create boundaries where Islam is a faith without national boundaries. Eqbal Ahmad describes himself as a 'harshly secular' person and an 'internationalist' but he was quick to praise elements of religious thought and practice that he found admirable among the Islamic Sufis.

Eqbal Ahmad saw Islam as concerned, above all, with the welfare of common people. Eqbal's leftism was his humanity and this only reinforced the pride he took in being a Pakistani in a challenging time.

"[Ahmad was] perhaps the shrewdest and most original anti-imperialist analyst of the post-war world, especially in the dynamics between the West and the post-colonial states of Asia and Africa."

In a review of The Selected Writings of Eqbal Ahmad, Keally McBride praises "his uncanny sense of human nature, and his encyclopedic knowledge of world history". Kabir Babar wrote that "to study him is to be exposed to the rare phenomenon of academic rigour coupled to a will to act." Shahid Alam of Monthly Review wrote that "Ahmad provided the most articulate, analytical, and passionate voice from the third world since Frantz Fanon. Almost certainly, he is also the most astute political thinker the Islamic world produced in the twentieth century."

He was a left-wing secularist, known for his lifelong denunciation and critiques of Western imperialism. Amitava Kumar argued, "As much as Said, he was a mentor to a generation of thinkers, mostly South Asian [...] notable for "not only the power but also the wide range of his sympathies [...] He was a committed engineer of emancipation, building imaginative roads, linking issues across continents." He found some aspects of Ahmad's analysis less relevant in the 21st century but still praised "his commitment to resolving political problems through diplomacy, not war. His writing on the Muslim world in particular was notable for its critical vigilance and integrity, its resistance to received wisdom." Irfan Husain wrote in Dawn that Ahmad was too biased in favor of the Palestinians in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict but also stated, "Perhaps his most precious gift was his ability to listen to others in a way most of us don't: he would pay young students the same courtesy of carefully following their argument that he would extend to the rich and powerful." Muhammad Idrees Ahmad wrote in 2016, "He accurately predicted the consequences of western recklessness in Afghanistan, and his warnings on US intervention in Iraq would prove prophetic."

title: Eqbal Ahmad


text:
Spanish invasion

Spanish invasion may refer to one of the following historical invasions by Spain:
 * Spanish colonization of the Americas, beginning with the 1492 arrival of Christopher Columbus and continuing for over four centuries
 * Spanish invasion of Britain, a group of Jacobites and Spanish soldiers which reached Scotland and surrendered at the Battle of Glen Shiel
 * Spanish invasion of Georgia, a military campaign by Spanish forces which attempted to seize and occupy disputed territory held by the British colony of Georgia
 * Spanish invasion of Portugal, the principal military campaign of the Fantastic War
 * Spanish invasion of New Granada, part of the Spanish American wars of independence in South America

title: Spanish invasion


text:
Talk:Indulis Emsis

Untitled
Just for clarification -- I wrote "52" as age because I couldn't find a source stating if Emsis was born 1952 or 1953. -- till we *) 12:41, 22 Feb 2004 (UTC)

title: Talk:Indulis Emsis


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Dirk Wears White Sox

Dirk Wears White Sox is the debut studio album by English new wave band Adam and the Ants. It was released on 30 November 1979 by record label Do It. It was the first number one album on the UK Independent Albums Chart when the chart debuted in Record Week in 1980.

Background
Dirk Wears White Sox was made with an early line-up of Adam and the Ants, which disbanded after the album was released. Guitarist Matthew Ashman and drummer David Barbarossa went on to form Bow Wow Wow with then-Ants bassist Leigh Gorman (who only played one gig with the Ants and was not involved in any studio recordings). Original bassist Andy Warren had departed shortly after recording the album to join former Ants guitarist Lester Square in The Monochrome Set. Many of the songs, notably "Cleopatra" and "Never Trust a Man (With Egg on his Face)", remained a part of Adam Ant's live repertoire throughout his career, both with the Ants and later as a solo artist.

The album title refers to classic British film icon Dirk Bogarde.

Production
The album was recorded 12–24 August 1979 at Sound Development Studios, London and mixed 25–29 August. All instrumentation and guide vocals were completed in the first three days. Of the fourteen tracks recorded, three - "Friends", "Kick" and "Physical" - were unfinished at this time, although "Physical" was later issued as the B-side on 2000 copies of the single "Zerox" in July, 1980. The remainder of the sessions were dedicated to recording finished lead and backing vocals for the eleven released tracks.

Five tracks from the album, "Day I Met God", "Cleopatra", "Catholic Day", "Never Trust A Man (With Egg On His Face)" and "Family of Noise" - plus the three rejected tracks - had previously been recorded in 1978 for the Ants' first label Decca Records - "Kick" at RAK Studios in Chalbert Street, London, produced by Snips, the other seven at Decca's own studio at Broadhurst Gardens, West Hampstead, produced by Ant himself. Prior to this, all songs on the released album except "Digital Tenderness", "Nine Plan Failed" and "Cleopatra" were recorded on 4-track by Ant at home in Notting Hill Gate 25–27 July, 1978; "Cleopatra" and "Physical" had been similarly taped by Ant at home in Chelsea, 20 November, 1977.

Musical style
Ant biographer James Maw reports in his 1981 book The Official Adam Ant Story that Ant wished to make "a stylish album with all the qualities of soul and funk." Ant confirmed in a 2014 interview for Classic Pop that the album was "me trying to make a Donna Summer record... I know it doesn't sound like that, but check out Dave (Barbe)'s drumming."

Mojo's Danny Eccleston classifies Dirk Wears White Sox as a post-punk album. Chris Woodstra of AllMusic described the album's style as a "sometimes-awkward fusion of punk, glam and minimalist post-punk with bizarre images and disturbing tales of alienation, sex and brutality." Peter Parrish of Stylus Magazine wrote that "Dirk slips somewhere between The Banshee's [sic] Scream and Gang of Four's Entertainment; all stark, angular and brittle."

The album has been cited as an influence on the nascent gothic rock scene. Andi Sex Gang from Sex Gang Children and John Robb referenced the record as part of the British Library's Goth: The Scene That Wouldn't Die, 2014.

Releases
Dirk Wears White Sox was released on 30 November 1979 by Do It Records. The three out-takes were later released in 1982 as the 7 inch EP The B-Sides as well as a 12-inch EP The Antmusic EP also containing a remix of Cartrouble (Parts 1 & 2).

The album was reissued in 1983, featuring a different album cover taken from a December 1979 video for the song "Zerox". "Catholic Day" and "Day I Met God" were dropped and "Cartrouble (Parts 1 and 2)" were replaced by "Cartrouble" in its single version and its B-side, a re-recording of "Kick!" which contained completely different lyrics from the rejected album version and featured Jon Moss on drums (who later went on to join Culture Club). This edition also adds two other songs from the same era not on the original LP: both sides of the "Zerox"/ "Whip in My Valise" single.

It was reissued again in 1995 by Sony, featuring the original black-and-white album art in somewhat cropped form and with the dropped songs reinstated as bonus tracks at the end. The lettering on the sleeve was recreated in the style of the original and does not feature the stroke through the letter O in the word "Sox"; it also substitutes a letter "Z" in place of the zig-zagged "S" in the word "Ants" (previously a common practice among unofficial merchandisers around the time of the album's original release). Later pressings of the 1995 edition substituted the Antmusic EP remix of "Cartrouble (Parts 1 & 2)" in place of the "Cartrouble" A-side.

The album was remastered and reissued in 2004 with the original track listing restored and the singles/EP material included as bonus tracks.

A white vinyl edition was released by Ant's own label Blueblack Hussar Records in spring 2014. To tie in with this, on 19 April, Ant performed the full album at the Hammersmith Apollo with a band including former Ants David Barbarossa and Leigh Gorman, preceding this with several UK tour dates. A launch party gig for the white vinyl album was held at the 100 Club. Both London concerts were filmed and later released as the DVD album Dirk Live at the Apollo. Ant would subsequently perform the full album again with his regular band for four nights at the Islington Assembly Hall in November 2014 and a full UK tour in spring 2015.

Reception
During their lifetime, the original Ants were subject to much hostility - even abuse - from the UK music press. An example of this was a highly negative joint review by Paul Morley of both Dirk and the upcoming Throbbing Gristle album 20 Jazz Funk Greats, for the NME under the headline "Berks That Lurk In The Corner Of Your Psyche." Ant remained aggrieved about this review in later years, commenting in a 2010 interview by Simon Price for The Quietus that he was upset how Morley "is now being commissioned by Sony to write my liner notes ... Go and write for Frankie Goes to Hollywood. Or go on TV and talk shit for three hours. That represents the old school. He's fucked. He's got no credibility. Fuck him." Do It label manager Ian Tregoning likewise denounced Morley's review as "garbage - it didn't even qualify as garbage."

Retrospective reviews have generally taken a more concilliatory tone. In his retrospective review of the album for AllMusic, Chris Woodstra wrote that "while the somewhat pretentious, overly arty lyrics and inexperienced playing are a drawback, the album offers a fascinating look at the Ants' formative years, capturing a raw energy that would be sacrificed for more polish on subsequent releases." Reviewing its 2004 reissue in Stylus Magazine, Peter Parrish called the album a "rather marvellous record of jagged jitters" and found that it "sounds a great deal more contemporary than later Ants material." Uncut likewise opined that unlike the band's subsequent albums, Dirk Wears White Sox "sounds as though it was made last week". Trouser Press was more critical, describing Ant's vocals as "dour" and "uncomfortable" and the band as sounding "dead" and "far too slow", though noting that the 1983 version is "far better" than the 1979 version.

Track listing

 * 1983 reissue

 * 1995 reissue

 * 2004 reissue

 * 2004 reissue notes
 * Tracks 1–11 from original November 1979 album release; tracks 12 and 13 from original July 1979 7" release; tracks 14–17 from original March 1982 12" EP release; tracks 18 and 19 from original March 1980 7" release.

Personnel
Track numbers relate to the 2004 reissue.
 * Adam and the Ants
 * Adam Ant – electric and acoustic guitars, vocals, piano, harmonica, bass on tracks 18 and 19
 * David Barbarossa (as Dave Barbe) – drums on tracks 1–17
 * Matthew Ashman – guitar and piano on tracks 1–17
 * Andrew Warren – bass on tracks 1–17

 * Additional personnel
 * Marco Pirroni – guitar, bass and vocals on tracks 18 and 19
 * Jon Moss – drums on tracks 18 and 19

 * Technical
 * Adam Ant – producer on tracks 1–17
 * Chris Hughes – producer on tracks 18 and 19, remix on track 16
 * Benny King – engineer on tracks 1–17
 * Paul Ludgate – assistant engineer on tracks 1–17
 * Hugh Jones – engineer on tracks 18 and 19
 * Clare Johnson – front cover concept, photography, models dress
 * Juanito Antonio Wadhwani – front cover concept, photography
 * Derek Bradbury – graphics, layout
 * Philip Grey – inner sleeve portraits

title: Dirk Wears White Sox


text:
Ecgfrith of Mercia

Ecgfrith was king of Mercia from 29 July to December 796. He was the son of Offa, one of the most powerful kings of Mercia, and Cynethryth, his wife. In 787, Ecgfrith was consecrated king, the first known consecration of an English king, probably arranged by Offa in imitation of the consecration of Charlemagne's sons by the pope in 781. Around 789, Offa seems to have intended that Ecgfrith marry the Frankish king Charlemagne's daughter Bertha, but Charlemagne was outraged by the request and the proposal never went forward.

According to the Croyland Chronicle "he (Ecgfrith) was seized with a malady, and departed this life." His reign lasted 141 days.

Ecgfrith was succeeded by a distant relative, Coenwulf, presumably because Offa had arranged the murder of nearer relatives in order to eliminate dynastic rivals. According to a contemporary letter from Alcuin of York, an English deacon and scholar who spent over a decade at Charlemagne's court as one of his chief advisors:
 * That most noble young man has not died for his sins, but the vengeance for the blood shed by the father has reached the son. For you know how much blood his father shed to secure the kingdom upon his son.

Alcuin added: "This was not a strengthening of the kingdom, but its ruin."

title: Ecgfrith of Mercia


text:
Engineering technologist

An engineering technologist is a professional trained in certain aspects of development and implementation of a respective area of technology. An education in engineering technology concentrates more on application and less on theory than does an engineering education. Engineering technologists often assist engineers; but after years of experience, they can also become engineers. Like engineers, areas where engineering technologists can work include product design, fabrication, and testing. Engineering technologists sometimes rise to senior management positions in industry or become entrepreneurs.

Engineering technologists are more likely than engineers to focus on post-development implementation, product manufacturing, or operation of technology. The American National Society of Professional Engineers (NSPE) makes the distinction that engineers are trained in conceptual skills, to "function as designers", while engineering technologists "apply others' designs". The mathematics and sciences, as well as other technical courses, in engineering technology programs, are taught with more application-based examples, whereas engineering coursework provides a more theoretical foundation in math and science. Moreover, engineering coursework tends to require higher-level mathematics including calculus and calculus-based theoretical science courses, as well as more extensive knowledge of the natural sciences, which serves to prepare students for research (whether in graduate studies or industrial R&D) as opposed to engineering technology coursework which focuses on algebra, trigonometry, applied calculus, and other courses that are more practical than theoretical in nature and generally have more labs that involve the hands-on application of the topics studied.

In the United States, although some states require, without exception, a BS degree in engineering at schools with programs accredited by the Engineering Accreditation Commission (EAC) of the Accreditation Board for Engineering and Technology (ABET), about two-thirds of the states accept BS degrees in engineering technology accredited by the Engineering Technology Accreditation Commission (ETAC) of the ABET, in order to become licensed as professional engineers. States have different requirements as to the years of experience needed to take the Fundamentals of Engineering (FE) and Professional Engineering (PE) exams. A few states require those sitting for the exams to have a master's degree in engineering. This education model is in line with the educational system in the United Kingdom where an accredited MEng or MSc degree in engineering is required by the Engineering Council (EngC) to be registered as a Chartered Engineer. Engineering technology graduates with can earn an MS degree in engineering technology, engineering, engineering management, construction management, or a National Architectural Accrediting Board (NAAB)-accredited Master of Architecture degree. These degrees are also offered online or through distance-learning programs at various universities, both nationally and internationally, which allows individuals to continue working full-time while earning an advanced degree.

Nature of the work
Engineering technologists are more likely to work in testing, fabrication/construction or fieldwork, while engineers generally focus more on conceptual design and product development, with considerable overlap (e.g., testing and fabrication are often integral to the overall product development process and can involve engineers as well as engineering technologists).

Engineering technologists are employed in a wide array of industries and areas including product development, manufacturing and maintenance. They may become managers depending upon the experience and their educational emphasis on management. Entry-level positions relating in various ways to product design, product testing, product development, systems development, field engineering, technical operations, and quality control are common for engineering technologists. Most companies generally make no distinction between engineers and engineering technologists when it comes to hiring.

Education and accreditation
Beginning in the 1950s and 1960s, some post-secondary institutions in the U.S. and Canada began offering degrees in engineering technology, focusing on applied study rather than the more theoretical studies required for engineering degrees. The focus on applied study addressed a need within the scientific, manufacturing, and engineering communities, as well as other industries, for professionals with hands-on and applications-based engineering knowledge. Depending on the institution, associate's or bachelor's degrees are offered, with some institutions also offering advanced degrees in engineering technology.

In general, an engineering technologist receives a broad range of applied science and applied mathematics training, as well as the fundamentals of engineering in the student's area of focus. Engineering technology programs typically include instruction in providing support to specific engineering specialties. Information technology is primarily involved with the management, operation, and maintenance of computer systems and networks, along with an application of technology in diverse fields such as architecture, engineering, graphic design, telecommunications, computer science, and network security. An engineering technologist is also expected to have had some coursework in ethics.

In 2001, Professional organizations from different countries have signed a mutual recognition agreement called the Sydney Accord, which represents an understanding that the academic credentials of engineering technologists will be recognized in all signatory states. The recognition given engineering technologists under the Sydney Accord can be compared to the Washington Accord for engineers and the Dublin Accord for engineering technicians. The Engineering Technologist Mobility Forum (ETMF) is an international forum held by signatories of the Sydney Accord to explore mutual recognition for experienced engineering technologists and to remove artificial barriers to the free movement and practice of engineering technologists amongst their countries. ETMF can be compared to the Engineers Mobility Forum (EMF) for engineers.

Graduates acquiring an associate degree, or lower, typically find careers as engineering technicians. According to the United States Bureau of Labor Statistics: "Many four-year colleges offer bachelor's degrees in engineering technology and graduates of these programs are hired to work as entry-level engineers or applied engineers, but not technicians." Engineering technicians typically have a two-year associate degree, while engineering technologists have a bachelor's degrees.

Canada
In Canada, the new occupational category of "technologist" was established in the 1960s, in conjunction with an emerging system of community colleges and technical institutes. It was designed to effectively bridge the gap between the increasingly theoretical nature of engineering degrees and the predominantly practical approach of technician and trades programs. Provincial associations may certify individuals as a professional technologist (P.Tech.), certified engineering technologist (C.E.T.), registered engineering technologist (R.E.T.), applied science technologist (AScT), or technologue professionel (T.P.). These provincial associations are constituent members of Technology Professionals Canada (TPC), which accredits technology programs across Canada, through its Technology Accreditation Canada (TAC). Nationally accredited engineering technology programs range from two to three years in length, depending on the province, and often require as many classroom hours as a 4-year degree program.

United States
In the United States, the U.S. Department of Education or the Council for Higher Education Accreditation (CHEA) are at the top of the educational accreditation hierarchy. The U.S. Department of Education acknowledges regional and national accreditation and CHEA recognizes specialty accreditation. One technology accreditation is currently recognized by CHEA: The Association of Technology, Management and Applied Engineering (ATMAE). CHEA recognizes ATMAE for accrediting associate, baccalaureate, and master's degree programs in technology, applied technology, engineering technology, and technology-related disciplines delivered by national or regional accredited institutions in the United States. As of March 2019, ABET withdrew from CHEA recognition

The National Institute for Certification in Engineering Technologies (NICET) awards certification at two levels, depending on work experience: the Associate Engineering Technologist (AT) and the Certified Engineering Technologist (CT). ATMAE awards two levels of certification in technology management: Certified Technology Manager (CTM) and Certified Senior Technology Manager (CSTM). ATMAE also awards two levels of certification of manufacturing specialist: Certified Manufacturing Specialist (CMS) and Certified Senior Manufacturing Specialist (CSMS). In 2020, ATMAE announced offering the Certified Controls Engineer (CCE) and Certified Senior Controls Engineer (CSCE) professional certifications. While the CTM, CMS, and CCE certifications are obtained through examination, the CSTM, CSMS and CSCE require industry experience and continuous improvement via the obtainment of professional development units (PDUs).

The American Society of Certified Engineering Technicians (ASCET) is a membership organization that issues Certified Member certifications to engineering technicians and engineering technologists. Professional engineers are issued Registered Member certification.

United Kingdom
The United Kingdom has a decades-long tradition of producing engineering technologists via the apprenticeship system. UK engineering technologists have always been designated as "engineers", which in the UK is used to describe the entire range of skilled workers and professionals, from tradespeople through to the highly educated Chartered Engineer. In fact up until the 1960s professional engineers in the UK were often referred to as "Technologists" to distinguish them from scientists, technicians, and craftsmen. The modern term for an engineering technologist is "incorporated engineer" (IEng), although since 2000 the normal route to achieving IEng is with a bachelor's or honors degree in engineering. Modern technical apprenticeships would normally lead to the engineering technician (EngTech) professional qualification and, with further studies at higher apprenticeship level, an IEng. Since 2015, the Universities and Colleges Admissions Service (UCAS) has introduced engineering degree (bachelors and masters) apprenticeships. The title "incorporated engineer" is protected by civil law. Prior to the title "incorporated engineer", UK technologists were known as "technician engineers" a designation introduced in the 1960s.

In the United Kingdom, an incorporated engineer is accepted as a "professional engineer", registered by the EngC, although the term "professional engineer" has no legal meaning in the UK and there are no restrictions on the practice. In fact, anyone in the UK can call themselves an "engineer" or "professional engineer" without any qualifications or proven competence in engineering; and most UK skilled trades are sometimes referred to as "professional" or "accredited" engineers. Examples are "Registered Gas Engineer" (gas installer) or "Professional Telephone Engineer" (phone line installer or fault diagnosis).

Incorporated engineers are recognized internationally under the Sydney Accord as engineering technologists. One of the professional titles recognized by the Washington Accord for engineers in the United Kingdom is the chartered engineer. The incorporated engineer is a professional engineer as recognized by the EngC of the United Kingdom. The European designation, as demonstrated by the prescribed title under 2005/36/EC, is "engineer". The incorporated engineer operates autonomously and directs activities independently. They do not necessarily need the support of chartered engineers, because they are often acknowledged as full engineers in the UK (but not in Canada or the U.S.). The United Kingdom incorporated engineer may also contribute to the design of new products and systems.

The chartered engineer and incorporated engineer, whilst often undertaking similar roles, are distinct qualifications awarded by the EngC, with Chartered Engineer (CEng) status being the terminal engineering qualification.

Incorporated engineers currently require an IEng-accredited bachelors or honors degree in engineering (prior to 1997 the B.Sc. and B.Eng. degrees satisfied the academic requirements for "chartered engineer" registration), a Higher National Certificate or diploma, City and Guilds of London Institute higher diploma/full technological cert diploma, or a Foundation Degree in engineering, plus appropriate further learning to degree level, or an NVQ4 or SVQ4 qualifications approved for the purpose by a licensed engineering institution.

The academic requirements must be accompanied by the appropriate peer-reviewed experience in employment—typically 4 years post qualification. In addition to the experience and academic requirements, the engineering candidate must have three referees (themselves CEng or IEng) who vouch for the performance of the individual being considered for professional recognition. There are a number of alternative ways to achieve IEng status for those that do not have the necessary qualifications for applicants, but who can clearly show they have achieved the same level as those with qualifications, including:

 * writing a technical report, based upon their experience and demonstrate their knowledge and understanding of engineering principles;
 * earning the City and Guilds graduate diploma (bachelors level) and a postgraduate diploma (masters level) accredited by the Institution of Mechanical Engineers (IMechE), Institution of Engineering and Technology (IET) and Institution of Civil Engineers (ICE);
 * following a work-based learning program;
 * or taking an academic program specified by the institution to which they are applying.

Engineering technologist / state-certified engineer
The engineering technologist (state-certified technician; Staatlich geprüfter Techniker) are vocational (non-academic) qualifications at the tertiary level in Germany. The degree is governed by the framework agreement of trade and technical schools (resolution of the Standing Conference of the Ministers of Education and Cultural Affairs of the states in the Federal Republic of Germany of 7 November 2002 in its respective applicable version) and is recognised by all states of the Federal Republic of Germany. It is awarded after passing state examinations at state or state-recognised technical school or academies (Fachschule/Fachakademie). Through the Vocational Training Modernisation Act (12.12.2019), state-certified engineers are also allowed to hold the title Bachelor Professional in Technik as of 1 January 2020.

To be eligible for the engineering technologist examination, candidates must fulfill the following requirements: completion of one of the school systems (Hauptschule, Realschule, Gymnasium), an apprenticeship of at least two years duration, one year of completed professional work experience and attendance of an educational program with a course load of 2400–3000 hours, usually completed within two years, full-time, or 3.5–4 years, part-time, at vocational colleges.

State-certified technicians/engineers in the EU directives
As of 31 January 2012, state-certified engineers, state-certified business managers and state-certified designers are at level 6-bachelor in the European Qualifications Framework (EQF), equivalent to a bachelor's degree. As such, the engineering technologist constitutes an advanced entry qualification for German universities and in principle permits entry into any undergraduate academic-degree program.

The qualifications are listed in EU Directives as recognised, regulated professions in Germany and the EU. Annexes C and D were added to Council Directive 92/51/EEC as a second general system for the recognition of professional education and training to supplement Directive 89/48/EEC.

Institutions involved included the federal government (in Germany, the Federal Ministry of Education and Research and the Federal Ministry of Economics and Technology), EU Standing Conference and Economic Ministerial Meeting of Countries, the German Chamber of Crafts, the Confederation of German Employers' Associations, German Chambers of Industry and Commerce, Confederation of German Trade Unions, and the Federal Institute for Vocational Application. These government institutions agreed on a common position regarding the implementation of the EQF and a German qualifications framework (DQR).

European Union law and other documents considered to be public include:

 * Annexes C and D to Council Directive 92/51/EEC on a second general system for the recognition of professional education and training to supplement Directive 89/48/EEC
 * EU Directive 2005L0036-EN 01.01.2007
 * ANNEX III list of regulated education and training referred to in the third subparagraph of Article 13(2)

title: Engineering technologist