History.

Background.

After the failure of the Tatarbunar Uprising, the Soviets promoted the newly created Moldavian Autonomous Oblast existing within the Ukrainian SSR on part of the territory between the Dniester and Bug rivers, to a Moldavian Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic (Moldavian ASSR), on 12 October 1924, as a way to primarily prop up the Soviet propaganda effort in Bessarabia, but also to exert pressure on Bucharest in the negotiations on Bessarabia, and even to help a possible Communist revolution in Romania.  On 24 August 1939, the Soviet Union and Nazi Germany signed a 10-year non-aggression treaty, called the Molotov–Ribbentrop pact. The pact contained a secret protocol, revealed only after Germany's defeat in 1945, according to which the states of Northern and Eastern Europe were divided into German and Soviet spheres of influence. The secret protocol placed the province of Bessarabia, at the time controlled by Romania, in the Soviet "sphere of influence." Thereafter, both the Soviet Union and Germany invaded their respective portions of Poland, while the Soviet Union occupied and annexed Lithuania, Estonia and Latvia in June 1940, and waged war upon Finland.

Establishment.

On 26 June, four days after the battle of France, the Soviet Union issued an ultimatum to the Romanian Kingdom, demanding the latter to cede Bessarabia and Bukovina. After the Soviets agreed with Germany that they would limit their claims in Bukovina, which was outside the Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact's secret protocols, to northern Bukovina, Germany urged Romania to accept the ultimatum, which Romania did two days later. On 28 June, Soviet troops entered the area, and on 9 July the Moldavian Soviet Socialist Republic was formed and applied to the Supreme Soviet for formal incorporation into the Soviet Union.  On 2 August 1940, the Supreme Soviet unanimously approved to dissolve the old Moldavian ASSR and organize the Moldavian SSR, from six full counties and small parts of three other Moldavian counties of Bessarabia (about 65 percent of its territory), and the six westernmost rayons of the Moldavian ASSR (about 40 percent of its territory). Ninety percent of the territory of MSSR was west of the river Dniester, which had been the border between the USSR and Romania prior to 1940, and 10 percent east. Northern and southern parts of the territories occupied by the Soviet Union in June 1940 (the current Chernivtsi Oblast and Budjak), which were more heterogeneous ethnically, were transferred to the Ukrainian SSR, although their population also included 337,000 Moldovans. As such, the strategically important Black Sea coast and Danube frontage were given to the Ukrainian SSR, considered more reliable than the Moldavian SSR, which could have been claimed by Romania.  In the summer of 1941, Romania joined Hitler's Axis in the invasion of the Soviet Union, recovering Bessarabia and northern Bukovina, as well as occupying the territory to the east of the Dniester it dubbed "Transnistria". Soviet partisans continued to be active in both regions. By the end of World War II, the Soviet Union had reconquered all of the lost territories, reestablishing Soviet authority there.

Stalinist period.

Repressions and deportations.

On June 22, 1941, during the first day of the German invasion of the Soviet Union, 10 people were killed in Răzeni by Soviet authorities and buried in a mass grave. In July 1941 after Operation Barbarossa, a commemorative plaque was installed in Răzeni: "Aici odihnesc robii lui Dumnezeu Diomid, Niculai, Dănila, Nichita, Alexandru, Jurian, Alexandru, Ilie, doi necunoscuţi. Omorâţi mișelește de bolșevici comuniști. 12.VII.1941". The memorial to victims of Răzeni Massacre was opened in 2009.  The Soviet authorities targeted several socio-economic groups due to their economic situation, political views, or ties to the former regime. They were deported to or resettled in Siberia and northern Kazakhstan; some were imprisoned or executed. According to a report by the Presidential Commission for the Study of the Communist Dictatorship in Romania, no less than 86,604 people were arrested and deported in 1940 and 1941 alone, comparable to the estimative number of 90,000 repressed put forward by Russian historians.  Immediately after the Soviet reoccupation, in 1944, a so-called "repatriation" of the Bessarabians who fled to Romania before the advancing Red Army was organized by the Soviet security forces; many were shot or deported, blamed as collaborators of Romania and Nazi Germany.  NKVD/MGB also struck at anti-Soviet groups, which were most active from 1944 to 1952. Anti-Soviet organizations such as Democratic Agrarian Party, Freedom Party, Democratic Union of Freedom, Arcașii lui Ștefan, Vasile Lupu High School Group, Vocea Basarabiei were severely reprimanded and their leaders were persecuted.  A de-kulakisation campaign was directed towards the rich Moldavian peasant families, which were deported to Kazakhstan and Siberia as well. For instance, in just two days, from 6 to 7 July 1949, over 11,342 Moldavian families were deported by the order of the Minister of State Security, Iosif Mordovets under a plan named "Operation South".  Religious persecutions during the Soviet occupation targeted numerous priests. After the Soviet occupation, the religious life underwent a persecution similar to the one in Russia between the two World Wars.  Other deportation campaigns were directed towards the ethnic Bessarabia Germans, whose number decreased from over 81,000 in 1930 to under 4,000 in 1959 due to voluntary wartime migration and forced removal as collaborators after the war. Religious minorities, 700 families, especially Jehovah's Witnesses, were deported to Siberia in Operation North of April 1951.

Collectivisation.

Collectivisation was implemented between 1949 and 1950, although earlier attempts were made since 1946. During this time, a large-scale famine occurred: some sources give a minimum of 115,000 peasants who died of famine and related diseases between December 1946 and August 1947. According to Charles King, there is ample evidence that it was provoked by Soviet requisitioning of large amounts of agricultural products and directed towards the largest ethnic group living in the countryside, the Moldovans. Contributing factors were the recent war, the drought of 1946, and collectivisation.

Khrushchev and Brezhnev.

With the regime of Nikita Khrushchev replacing that of Joseph Stalin, the survivors of Gulag camps and of the deportees were gradually allowed to return to the Moldavian SSR. The political thaw ended the unchecked power of the NKVD–MGB, and the command economy gave rise to development in the areas such as education, technology and science, health care, and industry.  Between 1969 and 1971, a clandestine National Patriotic Front was established by several young intellectuals in Chișinău by Mihail Munteanu, vowing to fight for the secession of Moldavia from the Soviet Union and union with Romania.  In December 1971, following an informative note from Ion Stănescu, the President of the Council of State Security of the Romanian Socialist Republic, to Yuri Andropov, the chief of KGB, three of the leaders of the National Patriotic Front, Alexandru Usatiuc-Bulgăr, Gheorghe Ghimpu and Valeriu Graur, as well as a fourth person, Alexandru Șoltoianu, the leader of a similar clandestine movement in northern Bukovina, were arrested and later sentenced to long prison terms.  In the 1970s and 1980s, Moldavia received substantial investment from the budget of the USSR to develop industrial, scientific facilities, as well as housing. In 1971, the Soviet Council of Ministers adopted a decision "About the measures for further development of Kishinev city" that secured more than one billion rubles of investment from the USSR budget.  Subsequent decisions directed enormous wealth and brought highly qualified specialists from all over the USSR to develop the Soviet republic. Such an allocation of USSR assets was partially influenced by the fact that Leonid Brezhnev, the effective ruler of the USSR from 1964 to 1982, was the First Secretary of the Communist Party of Moldavia from 1950 to 1952. These allocations stopped in 1991 with the Belavezha Accords, when the nation became independent.

Perestroika.

Although Brezhnev and other CPM first secretaries were largely successful in suppressing Moldavian nationalism, Mikhail Gorbachev's administration facilitated the revival of the movement in the region. His policies of glasnost and perestroika created conditions in which national feelings could be openly expressed and in which the Soviet republics could consider reforms independently from the central government.  The Moldavian SSR's drive towards independence from the USSR was marked by civil strife as conservative activists in the east —especially in Tiraspol—as well as communist party activists in Chișinău worked to keep the Moldavian SSR within the Soviet Union. The main success of the national movement from 1988 to 1989 was the official adoption of the Moldavian language on 31 August 1989, by the Supreme Soviet of Moldova, the declaration in the preamble of the declaration of independence of a Moldavian–Romanian linguistic unity, and the return of the language to the pre-Soviet Latin alphabet. In 1990, when it became clear that Moldavia was eventually going to secede, a group of pro-Soviet activists in Gagauzia and Transnistria proclaimed independence in order to remain within the USSR. The Gagauz Republic was eventually peacefully incorporated into Moldavia as the Autonomous Territorial Unit of Gagauzia, but relations with Transnistria soured. Its sovereignty was declared on 23 June 1990 on its territory.

Independence.

On 17 March 1991, Moldova, the Baltic states, the Armenian Soviet Socialist Republic, and the Georgian Soviet Socialist Republic boycotted the 1991 Soviet Union referendum with 98.72% in favor without any official sanction. On 23 May 1991, the Moldavian parliament changed the name of the republic to the Republic of Moldova. Gagauzia declared itself the Gagauz Republic on 19 August 1991.  Independence was quickly followed by civil war in Transnistria, where the central government in Chișinău battled with separatists, who were supported by pro-Soviet forces and later by different forces from Russia. The conflict left the breakaway regime (Pridnestrovian Moldavian Republic) in control of Transnistria – a situation that persists today. The Soviet Union ceased to exist on December 26, 1991 and Moldova was officially recognized as an independent state.

Relationship with Romania.

In the 1947 Paris Peace Treaty, the Soviet Union and Romania reaffirmed each other's borders, recognizing Bessarabia, northern Bukovina and the Herza region as territory of the respective Soviet republics. Throughout the Cold War, the issue of Bessarabia remained largely dormant in Romania. In the 1950s, research on history and of Bessarabia was a banned subject in Romania, as the Romanian Communist Party tried to emphasise the links between the Romanians and Russians, the annexation being considered just a proof of Soviet Union's internationalism. Starting in the 1960s, Gheorghe Gheorghiu-Dej and Nicolae Ceaușescu began a policy of distancing from the Soviet Union, but the debate over Bessarabia was discussed only in scholarship fields such as historiography and linguistics, not at a political level.  As Soviet–Romanian relations reached an all-time low in the mid-1960s, Soviet scholars published historical papers on the "Struggle of Unification of Bessarabia with the Soviet motherland" (Artiom Lazarev) and the "Development of the Moldavian language" (Nicolae Corlăţeanu). On the other side, the Romanian Academy published some notes by Karl Marx which talk about the "injustice" of the 1812 annexation of Bessarabia and Nicolae Ceaușescu in a 1965 speech quoted a letter by Friedrich Engels in which he criticized the Russian annexation, while in another 1966 speech, he denounced the pre-World War II calls of the Romanian Communist Party for the Soviet annexation of Bessarabia and Bukovina.  The issue was brought to light whenever the relationships with the Soviets were waning, but never became a serious subject of high-level negotiations in itself. On 22 June 1976, Ștefan Andrei, a membership on the Permanent Bureau of the Political Executive Committee of Romania and a future Minister of the Romanian Foreign Affairs, underscored that the republic harbored no territorial claims and recognized "the Moldavian Socialist Republic as an integral part of the USSR," yet that it "cannot accept the idea that Moldavians are not Romanians."  On 1 August 1976, Nicolae Ceaușescu, Elena Ceaușescu, Nicu Ceaușescu, Ștefan Andrei, Ambassador Gheorghe Badrus were the first high-level Romanian visitors to Moldova since World War II. On 1 August, they came from Iași and the First Secretary of the Communist Party of Moldavia Ivan Bodiul, Kiril Iliashenko, N. Merenișcev escorted them from the border until they left for the Crimea at the Chișinău International Airport on 2 August. The move was widely interpreted as a sign of improved relations. During a meeting, Brezhnev insisted that Ceaușescu himself had the opportunity to see that the Moldavians existed as a separate people with a separate language during his 1976 visit. "Yes," Ceaușescu replied, "I did, but they spoke with me in Romanian."  In December 1976, Bodiul and his wife Claudia arrived for a return visit of five days at Ceaușescu's invitation. Bodiul's visit was a "first" in the history of postwar bilateral relations. At one of his meetings in Bucharest, Bodiul said that "the good relationship was initiated by Ceaușescu's visit to Soviet Moldavia, which led to the expansion of contacts and exchanges in all fields. A visit was paid from 14 to 16 June 1979, to the Moldavian SSR by a Romanian Communist Party delegation headed by Ion Iliescu, Political Executive Committee alternate member and Iași County Party Committee First Secretary.  As late as November 1989, as Russian support decreased, Ceaușescu brought up the Bessarabian question once again and denounced the Soviet invasion during the 14th Congress of the Romanian Communist Party.  After the fall of communism in Romania, on 5 April 1991, its president Ion Iliescu, and Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev signed a political treaty which among other things recognized the Soviet-Romanian border. However, the Parliament of Romania refused to ratify it. Romania and Russia eventually signed and ratified a treaty in 2003, after the independence of Moldova and Ukraine.

Leadership.

The Moldavian Communist Party was a component of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union. The Communist Party was the sole legal political organization until perestroika. It had supreme power in the land, as all state and public organizations were its subordinates.  Until the 1978 Constitution of the Moldavian SSR (15 April 1978), the republic had four cities directly subordinated to the republican government: Chișinău, Bălți, Bender, and Tiraspol. By the new constitution, the following cities were added to this category: Orhei, Rîbnița, Soroca, and Ungheni. The former four cities, and 40 raions were the first-tier administrative units of the land.

Economy.

Although it was the most densely populated republic of the USSR, the Moldavian SSR was meant to be a rural country specialized in agriculture. Kyrgyzstan was the only Soviet Republic to hold a larger percentage of rural population. While holding just 0.2% of the Soviet territory, it accounted for 10% of the canned food production, 4.2% of its vegetables, 12.3% of its fruits and 8.2% of its wine production.  At the same time, most of the Moldavian industry was built in Transnistria. While accounting for roughly 15% of the population of Moldavian SSR, Transnistria was responsible for 40% of its GDP and for 90% of electricity production.  Major factories included the Rîbniţa steel mill, Dubăsari and Moldavskaia power station and the factories near Tiraspol, producing refrigerators, clothing and alcohol.

Society.

Education and language.

Beginning with the early 1950s, the government gradually abandoned the language standard based on the central Bessarabian speech, established as official during the Moldavian ASSR, in favour of the Romanian standard. Hence, Mihai Eminescu and Vasile Alecsandri were again allowed, and the standard written language became the same as Romanian, except that it was written with Cyrillic script.  Access to Romanian authors born outside the medieval Principality of Moldavia was restricted, as was the case with works by authors such as Eminescu, Mihail Kogălniceanu, Bogdan Petriceicu Hasdeu, Constantin Stere that promoted a Romanian national sentiment. Contacts with Romania were not severed and, after 1956, people were slowly allowed to visit or receive relatives in Romania. Romanian press became accessible, and cross-border Romanian TV and radio programmes could be easily received. Nevertheless, the Soviet–Romanian border along the Prut river, separating Bessarabia from Romania, was closed for the general public.

Culture.

The little nationalism which existed in the Moldavian elite manifested itself in poems and articles in literary journals, before their authors were purged in campaigns against "anti-Soviet feelings" and "local nationalism" organized by Bodiul and Grossu.  The official stance of the Soviet government was that Moldavian culture was distinct from Romanian culture, but they had a more coherent policy than the previous one from the Moldavian ASSR. There were no more attempts in creating a Moldavian language that is different from Romanian, the literary Romanian written with the Cyrillic alphabet being accepted as the linguistic standard for Moldavia. The only difference was in some technical terms borrowed from Russian.  Moldavians were encouraged to adopt the Russian language, which was required for any leadership job (Russian was intended to be the language of interethnic communication in the Soviet Union). In the early years, political and academic positions were given to members of non-Moldavian ethnic groups (only 14% of the Moldavian SSR's political leaders were ethnic Moldavians in 1946), although this gradually changed as time went on.  Literary critics stressed the Russian influence on Moldavian literature and ignored the parts shared with Romanian literature.

Demographics.

In the aftermath of World War II, many Russians and Ukrainians, along with a smaller number of other ethnic groups, migrated from the rest of the USSR to Moldavia in order to help rebuild the heavily war-damaged economy. They were mostly factory and construction workers who settled in major urban areas, as well as military personnel stationed in the region. From a socio-economic point of view, this group was quite diverse: in addition to industrial and construction workers, as well as retired officers and soldiers of the Soviet army, it also included engineers, technicians, a handful of scientists, but mostly unqualified workers.  Access of native Bessarabians to positions in administration and economy was limited, as they were considered untrustworthy. The first local to become minister in the Moldavian SSR was only in the 1960s as minister of health. The antagonism between "natives", and "newcomers" persisted until the dissolution of the Soviet Union and was clear during the anti-Soviet and anti-Communist events from 1988 to 1992. The immigration affected mostly the cities of Bessarabia, Northern Bukovina, as well as the countryside of Budjak where the Bessarabia Germans previously were, but also the cities of Transnistria. All of these saw the proportion of ethnic Moldavians slowly drop throughout the Soviet rule.

The Moldavian Soviet Socialist Republic (; ) was one of the 15 republics of the Soviet Union which existed from 1940 to 1991. The republic was formed on 2 August 1940 from parts of Bessarabia, a region annexed from Romania on 28 June of that year, and parts of the Moldavian Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic, an autonomous Soviet republic within the Ukrainian SSR.

La République socialiste soviétique moldave (en russe Молдавская Советская Социалистическая Республика, "Moldavskaïa Sovietskaïa Sotsialisitcheskaïa Respoublika" ; en moldave Република Советикэ Сочиалистэ Молдовеняскэ ; en lettres latines "Republica Sovietică Socialistă Moldovenească", littéralement ) ou RSSM, était l'une des 15 Républiques unionales (, ) de l'Union des républiques socialistes soviétiques avant la dislocation de celle-ci en 1991. Elle a été renommée République socialiste soviétique de Moldavie ("Republica Sovietică Socialistă Moldova") après la déclaration de sa souveraineté le, nom officiel qu'elle a eu jusqu'au, date de la proclamation de son indépendance sous le nom de République de Moldavie ("Republica Moldova").


Origins and cultivation.

"Prunus cerasus", a tetraploid with 2n=32 chromosomes, is thought to have originated as a natural hybrid between "Prunus avium" and "Prunus fruticosa" in the Iranian Plateau or Eastern Europe where the two species come into contact. "Prunus fruticosa" is believed to have provided its smaller size and sour tasting fruit. The hybrids then stabilised and interbred to form a new, distinct species.  Cultivated sour cherries were selected from wild specimens of "Prunus cerasus" and the doubtfully distinct "P. acida" from around the Caspian and Black Seas, and were known to the Greeks in 300 BC. They were also extremely popular with Persians and the Romans who introduced them into Britain long before the 1st century AD. The fruit remains popular in modern-day Iran.  In England, their cultivation was popularised in the 16th century in the time of Henry VIII. They became a popular crop amongst Kentish growers, and by 1640 over two dozen named cultivars were recorded. In the Americas, by 1704 the Vestry of New Kent County, Virginia recorded "The DePriest of Kent" planted 354 acres of Prunus cerasus along the Pamunkey River as the 'Kent' variety, that spawned other Virginia colonists throughout Richmond to plant sour cherry trees, 'Early Richmond' variety or 'Kentish Red', when they arrived. Before the Second World War there were more than fifty cultivars of sour cherry in cultivation in England; today, however, few are grown commercially, and despite the continuation of named cultivars such as 'Kentish Red', 'Amarelles', 'Griottes' and 'Flemish', only the generic Morello is offered by most nurseries. This is a late-flowering variety, and thus misses more frosts than its sweet counterpart and is therefore a more reliable cropper. The Morello cherry ripens in mid to late summer, toward the end of August in southern England. It is self-fertile, and would be a good pollenizer for other varieties if it did not flower so late in the season. Sour cherries require similar cultivation conditions to pears, that is, they prefer a rich, well-drained, moist soil, although they demand more nitrogen and water than sweet cherries. Trees will do badly if waterlogged, but have greater tolerance of poor drainage than sweet varieties. As with sweet cherries, Morellos are traditionally cultivated by budding onto strong growing rootstocks, which produce trees too large for most gardens, although newer dwarfing rootstocks such as "Colt" and "Gisella" are now available. During spring, flowers should be protected, and trees weeded, mulched and sprayed with natural seaweed solution. This is also the time when any required pruning should be carried out (note that cherries should not be pruned during the dormant winter months). Morello cherry trees fruit on younger wood than sweet varieties, and thus can be pruned harder. They are usually grown as standards, but can be fan trained, cropping well even on cold walls, or grown as low bushes.  Sour cherries suffer fewer pests and diseases than sweet cherries, although they are prone to heavy fruit losses from birds. In summer, fruit should be protected with netting. When harvesting fruit, they should be cut from the tree rather than risking damage by pulling the stalks.  Unlike most sweet cherry varieties, sour cherries are self fertile or self pollenizing (sometimes inaccurately referred to as self-pollinating). Two implications of this are that seeds generally run true to the cultivar, and that much smaller pollinator populations are needed because pollen only has to be moved within individual flowers. In areas where pollinators are scarce, growers find that stocking beehives in orchards improves yields.  Some cultivars of sour cherry trees, such as Montmorency and North Star, have been documented to perform better than other cherry trees in Colorado's Front Range region.

Uses.

Culinary.

Dried sour cherries are used in cooking including soups, pork dishes, cakes, tarts, and pies.  Sour cherries or sour cherry syrup are used in liqueurs and drinks, such as the portuguese ginjinha. In Iran, Turkey, Greece and Cyprus, sour cherries are especially prized for making spoon sweets by slowly boiling pitted sour cherries and sugar; the syrup thereof is used for "sharbat-e Albalou", "vişne şurubu" or "vyssináda", a beverage made by diluting the syrup with ice-cold water. A particular use of sour cherries is in the production of kriek lambic, a cherry-flavored variety of a naturally fermented beer made in Belgium.

Prunus cerasus (sour cherry, tart cherry, or dwarf cherry) is a species of "Prunus" in the subgenus "Cerasus" (cherries), native to much of Europe and southwest Asia. It is closely related to the sweet cherry ("Prunus avium"), but has a fruit that is more acidic. Its sour pulp is edible.

Le cerisier acide, cerisier aigre ou griottier (Prunus cerasus) est un arbre fruitier du genre "Prunus", famille des "Rosaceae". Il est cultivé pour ses fruits, les griottes.


Etymology.

He is clearly identified as one of the Phoenician deities covered under the name of Baal. However, the meaning of his second name is unclear. Frank Moore Cross argued for a connection to "Hamōn", the Ugaritic name for Mount Amanus, a peak in the Nur Mountains which separate Syria from Cilicia. In the 19th century, when Ernest Renan excavated the ruins of Hammon (Ḥammon), the modern Umm al-‘Awamid between Tyre and Acre, he found two Phoenician inscriptions dedicated to El-Hammon. Others have proposed "Hammon" as a syncretic association with Libyan-Egyptian god Amun, while a last current has called instead for a connection with the Northwest Semitic word "ḥammān" ("brazier"), suggesting the sense "Lord of the Brazier".

Cult and attributes.

The worship of Baʿal Hammon flourished in the Phoenician colony of Carthage. His supremacy among the Carthaginian gods is believed to date to the fifth century BC, after relations between Carthage and Tyre were broken off at the time of the Battle of Himera (480 BC).. Baal Hammon was known as the Chief of the pantheon of Carthage and the deity that made vegetation grow; as with most deities of Carthage, his powers relied on child sacrifice.  He has been identified with a solar deity, although Yigael Yadin thought him to be a moon god. Edward Lipinski identifies him with the god Dagon. In Carthage and North Africa Baʿal Hammon was especially associated with the ram and was worshiped also as Baʿal Qarnaim ("Lord of Two Horns") in an open-air sanctuary at Jebel Boukornine ("the two-horned hill") across the bay from Carthage, in Tunisia.  The interpretatio graeca identified him with the Titan Cronus. In ancient Rome, he was identified with Saturn, and the cultural exchange between Rome and Carthage as a result of the Second Punic War may have influenced the development of the festival of Saturnalia.  Greco-Roman sources report that the Carthaginians burned their children as offerings to Baʿal Hammon. (See "Moloch" for a discussion of these traditions and conflicting thoughts on the matter.) Attributes of his Romanized form as an African Saturn indicate that Hammon ("Amunus" in Philo's work) was a fertility god.

Location.

Ba'al Hamon was a place mentioned in the Song of Solomon. It was the location of a productive vineyard owned by Solomon, who let out the vineyard to tenants, each of whom was to bring him a thousand silver shekels. The locale has been supposed to be identical with Baal-gad, and also with Hammon in the tribe of Asher.

Baal Hammon, properly Baʿal Ḥammon or English: “Lord Hammon” Ḥamon (Phoenician: "baʿl ḥamūn"; Punic: ""), was the chief god of Carthage. He was a weather god considered responsible for the fertility of vegetation and esteemed as King of the Gods. He was depicted as a bearded older man with curling ram's horns. Baʿal Ḥammon's female cult partner was Tanit.

Ba'al Hammon ou Baal Hammon, parfois surnommé le « Saturne africain », est la divinité centrale de la religion carthaginoise à qui est offert le sacrifice du molk.


The show.

Pre-show and Intro.

Even though the Carousel of Progress does not typically have a long queue, there is a pre-show video shown to guests while they wait outside the theater. The video talks about the history and development of the attraction, and includes clips of Walt Disney explaining the attraction on his television show. The video lasts about four minutes, after which guests enter

Act 1 - 1900s.

As the scene opens, robins chirp in the background and the music fades. The father of the family, John, is sitting in a wooden rocking chair inside his home. On his right, his dog Rover is happily lying on the floor. John tells guests that it is "right around the turn of the century" and that it is Valentine’s Day. He then claims that things could not get any better than they are at that time, before giving a list

Act 2 - 1920s.

John is once again sitting in his kitchen, this time on a smaller kitchen chair on Independence Day in the "Roaring Twenties". Wires and new electric machines are all over the room. When John stops singing, he tells guests that things have changed a lot in the last twenty years. He proceeds to tell guests the new accomplishments of the era. These include:  John then tells guests that Thomas Edison has brought electricity to his home. At this point all of the electronic machines in the kitchen, such as the refrigerator, toaster oven, vacuum, and electric lights turn on. John

Act 3 - 1940s.

As the music stops, it is now Halloween during the "Fabulous Forties" and John is wearing a sweater while sitting at a circular booth-style kitchen table. He tells guests that everything is better than ever in the 1940s and shows off new kitchen technologies, including a refrigerator that holds more food and ice cubes and an automatic dishwasher. John also informs guests that he is now a part of the "rat race" and they now have television, when it works, and that John Cameron Swayze brings them the news every night.  At this point, the scene shifts and focuses on a room on the right, where the grandmother and grandfather are watching wrestling on TV. After that, a now teenage Jim calls from his room and asks what his father thinks of the Jack-O-Lantern he

Act 4 - 21st century.

Set during Christmas in the 21st century, the entire family is gathered in the living room and kitchen singing "There's a Great Big Beautiful Tomorrow" in contrast to the previous scenes which featured only John in the kitchen. As the music ends, John is standing on the right working on Christmas dinner, while Sarah sits nearby working on a computer. Jim, now a young adult, and his grandmother are playing a virtual reality game, while a 20-something Trish and her grandfather sit around the Christmas tree. Sarah tells John that she has programmed the oven to recognize his voice. John then comments that now all of the household items are voice-automated, to which the grandfather replies "Great... tell the refrigerator to bring me a root beer." Sarah responds to the joke, saying that although they can't do that, she can brighten the tree lights. She then tells John to try the voice-activated oven, which he does with no problem. After the oven confirms John’s temperature command, Trish comments that "it even talks back!" She and the rest of the family also make fun of John for burning last

End.

The theater then rotates to the unloading area, which looks identical to the loading area, as a pop-style

History.

Edison Square concept.

In the late 1950s, after Disneyland's initial success, Walt Disney planned to expand the Main Street, U.S.A. area with two districts: "International Street" and "Edison Square". In Edison Square, guests would be treated to a show which was supposed to be called "Harnessing the Lighting" hosted by an "electro-mechanical" man named "Wilbur K. Watt". The show would chronicle the evolution of electricity in the home, from the late 19th century

1964 New York World's Fair.

General Electric approached Walt Disney to develop a show for the company's pavilion at the 1964–1965 New York World's Fair. Disney leapt at the chance to rekindle his relationship with GE, who would fund the project and the new technology necessary to bring it to life. Reaching back to the Edison Square concept, Walt Disney again pitched the idea of an electrical progress show to General Electric executives, who loved it.  During the planning phase, Disney's Imagineers perfected the Audio-Animatronics (AA) technology necessary to operate the "performers" in the show, using the technologies in Walt Disney's Enchanted Tiki

Disneyland.

The Carousel of Progress was re-opened at Disneyland Park on July 2, 1967, and this version only had small differences from the version at the New York World's Fair. The new home for the ride opened nearly seven months after Walt's death, as part of the New Tomorrowland. Due to the success of the attractions Disney created for the Fair, General Electric agreed to sponsor the Carousel of Progress at Disneyland. However, the Carousel of Progress was to be a permanent fixture at Disneyland, and it is unknown how many years General Electric would have sponsored the ride had it stayed there, although it is presumed the sponsorship would have lasted 10–12 years as many other sponsors throughout Disneyland Park had.  The actual attraction was located on ground level and a new nearly identical theater system was constructed. The sets and "performers" all came right from the Fair exhibit and remained in nearly their original state. There were some slight changes: a new voice was recorded for Mother, "Christmas in the Home of the 1960s" was slightly updated in set design and technology, all references to General Electric's passé "Medallion Home"

Magic Kingdom.

Carousel of Progress opened in the Magic Kingdom's Tomorrowland on January 15, 1975, alongside Space Mountain. General Electric signed a 10-year contract to sponsor Carousel of Progress at the Magic Kingdom. Unlike the small changes that had occurred when the Carousel of Progress moved from the 1964–1965 New York World's Fair to Disneyland, extensive changes were made when the attraction moved to Walt Disney World.  A new carousel theater building was designed to house the attraction: a one-story pavilion,

Post-GE years.

On March 10, 1985, General Electric's contract expired, the company chose not to renew. The attraction closed shortly thereafter so that all General Electric references could be removed from the attraction. The GE logo was replaced with a logo that showed a blueprint of the six carousel theaters surrounding the six fixed stages on the signs outside of the attraction and the GE logo on the silver curtain was covered with a round sign with the blueprint logo and the name Carousel of Progress.

Precursors.

The show draws much of its inspiration from industrial films that American appliance manufacturers funded to demonstrate how their products would change the pattern of domestic chores and improve life. The desire to sell during the Great Depression

Spin-offs and related attractions.

America Sings, the audio-animatronic attraction that replaced the Carousel of Progress at Disneyland, used the same rotating theater building, with the outer ring of six theaters, connected by divider walls, revolving mechanically around the six fixed stages in the center of the building. The attraction operated between 1974 and 1988. Like the Carousel of Progress, the first and the last scenes of America Sings involved the loading and unloading of guests, while the other four scenes, or "acts," depicted a particular era. America Sings rotated in a counter-clockwise direction, rather than the original clockwise direction.  From October 1, 1983, until January 9, 1999, an attraction known as Horizons existed at Epcot in the Walt Disney World Resort. It was more or less a sequel to the Carousel of Progress, depicting the host family living and working in technologically enhanced environments in the near future. During the first portion of its run, the show was also sponsored by General Electric from 1983 to 1994.

Soundtrack.

The entire soundtrack for the Disneyland version (1967–1973) can be heard on "A Musical History of Disneyland" (2005). The soundtrack was also released as part of the 5-disc CD set "Walt Disney and the 1964 World's Fair" released on March 24, 2009 which includes instrumental versions of "There's a Great Big Beautiful Tomorrow" representing different eras of progress, and an early "Alternate Universe" version

External links.

Profiles:  Other:

Walt Disney's Carousel of Progress is a rotating theater audio-animatronic stage show attraction that is located in Tomorrowland at the Magic Kingdom theme park at the Walt Disney World Resort in Bay Lake, Florida just outside of Orlando, Florida. Created by both Walt Disney and WED Enterprises as the prime feature of the General Electric (GE) Pavilion for the 1964 New York World's Fair, the attraction was moved to Tomorrowland at Disneyland in Anaheim, California as Carousel of Progress, remaining there from 1967 until 1973. It was replaced in Disneyland by America Sings in 1974, and reopened in its present home in the Magic Kingdom in 1975.

Le Carousel of Progress (« Carrousel du progrès ») est une attraction des parcs Disney originellement conçue par Walt Disney pour la foire internationale de New York en 1964-65. L'attraction consistait en un voyage d'une famille ordinaire à travers le et au-delà. L'attraction ouvrit d'abord à la foire internationale puis fut transférée à Disneyland avant d'être à nouveau transférée au Magic Kingdom de Walt Disney World Resort où elle est toujours en opération.


History.

Origin.

"Luk thung" traces its roots from "phleng Thai sakon", which adopted Western instrumental characteristics like the orchestra and electronic instruments in the time of King Rama IV. "Phleng Thai sakon" continuously evolved throughout the time of King Rama V, and was showcased in numerous films and stage performances. Atiphob Pataradetpisan's, "Waltz Pleumchit" ('Delighted Mind Waltz') in 1903 was recorded to be the first Thai "sakon" song.  During Plaek Phibunsongkhram's government (1938-1944), "phleng Thai sakon" became a form of propaganda for the government to broadcast its political ideology of modernization in Thailand. In 1939, Eua Sunthornsanan formed the first Thai "sakon" band, called "Suntharaporn", using a number of classically trained musicians who had lost their royal appointments following the 1932 coup. Eua Sunthornsanan served the Prime Minister, Plaek Phibunsongkhram, as the head of Thailand's main orchestra, and the music section for Thailand's Public Relations Department. He dominated the music industry by composing over 2,000 songs, leading him to become one of the most influential pioneers of "phleng Thai sakon". Some of his notable records were, "Phleng Wattanatum" ('Culture song'), "Phleng Faai" ('Cotton song'), and "Phleng Saang Thai" ('Building Thailand song').  In 1944 the "Romvong" dance was introduced by the Phibun government's Fine Arts Department when it issued ten "Ramvong Matrathan" ('standard circle dances') to compete against Western dance music. It is suggested that Phibun and his wife, La-iat, had observed rural "Ramthon" ('Drum Dance') performances while visiting Phetchabun Province and surrounding areas. La-iat noted some of the texts and melodies and these notes formed the basis of the Fine Arts Department's "Ramvong Matrathan". This was a critical step in the future formulation of "luk thung". "Ramvong" went on to become a highly successful musical genre in Thailand for a decade after the mid-1940s. It was "Ramvong" that bought northeastern performers such as Tumthong Chokchana (a.k.a. Benjamin), born in Ubon, and Chaloemchai Sriruecha, born in Roi Et, into the Thai music industry and so paved the way for the heavy northeastern influence on "luk thung" music when it emerged.

First generation.

After World War II, Thailand experienced economic growth, which led to inflation within the country, including a severe shortage of supplies of rice. The entertainment and commercial industries quickly recovered, and artists were able to resume their recording careers. The aftermath of the war influenced new music trends, in particular, lyrics that highlighted the social crisis and government pressure after the war, as well as political and economic concerns.  The first generation emerged from 1945 to 1957. The new style of Thai Sakon evolved into two directions of cultural traits: rural "Luk Thung", and urban "Luk Krung" ("Child of the City"). The original form of "luk thung" was called "phleng talat" ('market music'), or also referred to as "phleng chiwit" ('life music'). The term "phleng talat" was initially used to refer to "luk thung" songs that were popular in temple markets and festivities, and "phleng chiwit" was used to refer to songs that lyrically reflected people's way of life and social concerns. Early "phleng chiwit" artists include Saeng Napha Boonra-Sri, Saneh Komanchun, and Suraphol Sombatcharoen.  The term "luk thung" gained popularity in 1964. According to Prakob Chaipipat, Manager of Thai Television Channel 4, "on 11th May, 1964, Jumnong Rangsikul established a TV show, called "Phleng Chao Baan" ('folk song') and showcased three "phleng talat" artists: Porm Pirom, Pongsri Woranuch, and Toon Tongjai. However, the show was soon taken off the air by Ajin Panjapan, due to its negative reception. In December 1964, Jumnong Rangsikul revived the show, and renamed it "Phleng Luk Thung" ('child of the field music'). After six months the show gained prominent acceptance from society. Moreover, it initiated a trend of "luk thung" TV shows. "Luk Thung Krung Thai" ('Thai capital luk thung') was later aired by TV Channel 4. "Luk thung" music gained massive national television exposure, leading to a rapid increase in the number of new artists and songs."

Golden age of "luk thung".

Suraphol Sombatcharoen played a major role in launching "luk thung's" earliest records in the late-1950s to 1960s, leading "luk thung" to reach its peak of popularity; this earned him the title "king of "luk thung"". He composed over 100 songs, includes his first hit, "Nam Da Sow Vienne" ('Tears of a Lao Girl') and many well-known records such as "Sieow Sai" ('Stomach ache Nervous'), "Kong Bplom" ('Fake Stuff') and "Sao Suan Taeng" ('The Girl of the Cucumber Farm').  In February 1966, Somyot Thassanaphan became the first "luk thung" artist to win the Thai Royal Golden Disk Award, with "Chor Tip Ruang Tong" ('Divine Bouquet of Gold'), composed by Payong Mookda.

Age of musical film.

In 1970, the release of "Monrak Luk Thung" ('Luk Thung Love Spell'), directed by Rangsi Thatnopyak and starring Mitr Chaibancha and Petchara Chaowarat, popularized "luk thung" throughout Thailand. This led to a rapid increase of musical films showcasing "luk thung" music, and provided an opportunity for many new artists later in the period. Some of the notable films include "Mae Sri Phai" ('Mother Sri Phai') and "Thung Setti" ('Country Millionaire'). These were followed by "Tone", which starred the rising artist of the period, Sangthong Sisai. Sangthong’s records incorporate energetic tempo and rhythm, demonstrated in his famous hit, "Lung Sang Thong" ('Uncle Sang Thong').  During Thanom Kittikachorn's government, most records emphasized resistance to the corrupt government. "Yom Mabarn Jao Ka" ('King of Hell') gained Buppha Saichol attention due to her depiction of opposing views towards the government, leading her to become one of the most successful artists of the period.

"Haang kreuang" and concerts.

In more recent times, groups of backup dancers dressed in Western-influenced fancy costumes (known as "haang kreung") have become an essential component in "luk thung" concerts. Pumpuang Duangjan was the most successful "luk thung" female artist of the period; she pioneered a new style by incorporating string music into "luk thung", resulting in a genre called electronic "luk thung". Her first record was "Phleng Kaew Raw Pi" ('Kaew, wait for me'), followed by many other hits, earning her the title "queen of "luk thung"".

Luk thung, or Phleng luk thung (,, 'child of the field song'), often known as Thai country music, is an acculturated song genre that emerged after World War II in the central region of Thailand. The genre was derived from phleng Thai sakon, and developed in the early-20th century. Suphan Buri in particular became the center of "luk thung" music, producing many major artists, including Suraphol Sombatcharoen, and Pumpuang Duangjan. The genre has been prominently popularized in the northeastern region, having from its beginnings drawn upon northeastern "mor lam" musical traditions and the northeastern Isan language.

Le Luk thung (en thaï ลูกทุ่ง), littéralement « l'enfant des champs », est la forme la plus populaire de musique country thaïlandaise. Ce terme est une abréviation pour "Pleng luk thung" (en thaï เพลงลูกทุ่ง - chanson d'un enfant des champs). Ces chansons sont un témoignage du dur labeur journalier de la vie des pauvres paysans. Le tempo est lent, et les chanteurs ont tendance à utiliser un chant expressif à base de nombreux vibratos.


Biography.

Hazard was the son of a school teacher. Starting in 1900, he attended the École Normale Supérieure in Paris. He received a doctorate from the Sorbonne in 1910 and became famous for his Ph.D. dissertation "La Révolution française et les lettres italiennes" (1910).  Hazard began his career at the University of Lyon in 1910, teaching comparative literature. In 1919 he began teaching also at the Sorbonne. In 1925 Hazard was appointed to the chair of comparative literature at the Collège de France in Paris. In alternating years, from 1932 until 1940, he was a visiting lecturer at Columbia University in New York. During the 1920s and 1930s, Hazard also lectured at other American schools. He was elected to the Académie française in 1939.  After finishing his semester of teaching at Columbia in 1940, Hazard voluntarily returned to Nazi occupied France in January 1941. He continued to teach, at Lyon and Paris, and to study. Later that same year Hazard was nominated to the rectorship of the University of Paris, but was rejected by the Nazis as unacceptable. Working under what have been described as cruel circumstances, he completed "European Thought in the Eighteenth Century". In the year of his death, an article, "Pour que vive l'âme de la France" ("So That the Soul of France May Live"), appeared in the clandestine review "France de demain".  Hazard died in Paris on 13 April 1944.

Published works.

Hazard founded, with Fernand Baldensperger, the "Revue de littérature comparée" in 1921. Some of his important writings are "Histoire illustrée de la littérature française" (comp. with Joseph Bédier, 2 vol., 1923–24); "Leopardi" (1913); "Lamartine" (1926); "Stendhal" (1927); "Don Quichotte" (1931); and "Les livres, les enfants et les hommes" (1932) ("Books, Children and Men" tr. 1944). This last work has been described as a sensitive appraisal of works written either for very young readers, or taken over by them, covering all Europe over many centuries. In this book, he was the first to point out that Northern Europe surpassed Southern Europe in children's literature.  Hazard is known today mainly for two works. The first was "La Crise de la conscience européenne", 1935 ("The European Mind, the Critical Years, 1680-1715, tr. 1952"). This work examined the conflict between 17th-century Neoclassicism and its ideals of order and perfection and the ideas of the Enlightenment.  The other was his last completed work "La Pensée européenne au XVIIIème siècle, de Montesquieu à Lessing" (1946) ("European Thought in the Eighteenth Century from Montesquieu to Lessing", tr. 1954 by J. Lewis May) published posthumously in 1946. This work was a continuation of the subject matter discussed in "The European Mind". Apparently, Hazard intended a third volume which would have focused on "the Man of Feeling. On that enterprise we have already embarked. One day, perchance, we shall complete it. One day, "si vis suppeditat", as the Romans used to say." ("European Thought in the Eighteenth Century", p. xx) Hazard did not live to complete it.

Paul Gustave Marie Camille Hazard (; 30 April 1878, in Noordpeene, Nord – 13 April 1944, in Paris), was a French professor and historian of ideas.

Paul Hazard, né à Noordpeene le et mort à Paris le, est un historien et essayiste français. Il est élu à l'Académie française en 1940.


History.

Background.

The Stanley Cup was donated in 1893 to serve as a trophy to be awarded to the national champion of Canadian amateur ice hockey. The trophy eventually became open to professional teams in 1906 and a new trophy, the Allan Cup was donated to serve as the national amateur trophy. By this time, the Canadian Prairies were being rapidly settled and in 1914 a team based in Saskatchewan (the Regina Victorias) would capture the Allan Cup for the first time. By this time, competition for the Stanley Cup, had evolved into a World Series-inspired "East vs. West" affair to be contested between the winners of the two professional hockey leagues then in business, the Pacific Coast Hockey Association (PCHA), based in British Columbia, Washington and Oregon and the National Hockey Association (NHA), based in Ontario and Quebec. Although the PCHA won two of the first three Stanley Cup series contested under this format, the National Hockey League (NHL) came to dominate Stanley Cup play after it replaced the NHA as the premier Eastern competition in 1917.

Early years.

In 1921, the Edmonton Eskimos and Calgary Tigers of the Big Four League saw their league collapse on allegations of pay for amateurs. Together with the Regina Capitals and Saskatoon Sheiks the teams organized the openly professional Western Canada Hockey League (WCHL). The league was organized under the presidency of E. L. Richardson of Calgary, with Wesley Champ of Regina, Robert Pinder of Saskatoon, K. C. MacKenzie of Edmonton, and J. Lloyd Turner of Calgary, becoming the directors. The league, like the National Hockey League (NHL), played six-man hockey, without the old 'rover' position. At the time, there was not yet a clear distinction between "major" and "minor" professional leagues in any North American sport other than baseball and the new league was recognized as a comparable league to the existing Pacific Coast Hockey Association (PCHA). The winner of a series between the champions of the two leagues would go on to face the winner of the NHL for the coveted Stanley Cup.  The league started with high hopes in a general climate of optimism that followed the end of the First World War. Like another then-fledgling professional league in a different sport (the American Professional Football Association, forerunners to today's National Football League) the WCHL was centered in smaller cities with populations of under 100,000 people. In an era where professional sport was considered to be a seasonal occupation to be supplemented by off-season work, salaries even at the major professional level were relatively small and thought to be within the means of clubs located in markets as small as Saskatoon and Moose Jaw.  The WCHL's first season, 1921–22, saw the Saskatoon Sheiks have money problems and relocate to Moose Jaw, Saskatchewan, to become the Moose Jaw Sheiks. The Edmonton Eskimos won the regular season standings, but were upset in the playoffs by the second place Regina Capitals. The Capitals then faced the Vancouver Millionaires of the PCHA to determine who would go on to face the Toronto St. Patricks of the NHL for the Stanley Cup. Vancouver won the series against Regina, but lost to Toronto in the Stanley Cup finals.  In the next season, the Moose Jaw team folded, but the WCHL returned to Saskatoon with a new franchise, the Saskatoon Crescents, led by Newsy Lalonde. The WCHL and PCHA started playing inter-league games, but kept separate standings. The Edmonton Eskimos won the regular season, but lost to the NHL's Ottawa Senators in the Stanley Cup finals.  In the 1923–24 WCHL season, the Calgary Tigers finished in first place while Edmonton finished at the bottom of the standings. The playoffs were changed this year, too, despite a protest from the Montreal Canadiens of the NHL. Instead of the two western leagues playing off to see who would play the NHL champion for the Stanley Cup, the president of the PCHA, Frank Patrick, insisted that the NHL champion had to play the PCHA winner first. This change ended up not making any difference for Montreal, as the team swept Vancouver and then Calgary for the Stanley Cup.  For the 1924–25 WCHL season, the PCHA folded and two of its teams, the Vancouver Maroons and Victoria Cougars joined the WCHL, giving the league six teams. The Saskatoon franchise became the Saskatoon Sheiks. The league had some top-level talent on its rosters, with stars such as Bun Cook and Bill Cook and rookie Eddie Shore. The Victoria Cougars, coached and managed by PCHA founder Lester Patrick, won the league championship and went on to face the Montreal Canadiens for the Stanley Cup. Victoria easily beat the Canadiens three games to one, out scoring them 16 to 8. This would be the shining moment for the WCHL as Victoria became the first non-NHL team to win the Stanley Cup since the formation of the NHL in 1917. Since then, no non-NHL team has won the Cup. In fact, the next season, 1925–26, would be the last time a team from outside the NHL would even challenge for it.

Collapse.

The WCHL was never particularly stable. A major factor weakening the league's long term prospects for success was the lack of any teams in Winnipeg, then by far the largest city in the Prairies. Due to the city's relatively large size, the league hoped to ice multiple teams in the Manitoban capital (similar to how Montreal, then the largest city in Canada, then hosted both the Canadiens and Maroons in the NHL). The rationale was both a desire to boost the total number of teams and a fear that a single Winnipeg team would dominate the league. However, no potential ownership group was willing to ice a team in Winnipeg without being granted the sort of territorial exclusivity that was by then common practice in North American professional sports leagues.  The beginning of the end came in 1924 when the NHL first expanded into the United States. With the NHL rapidly expanding, salaries were on the rise and the WCHL was finding it difficult to keep its star players. In 1925, the Regina Capitals relocated to Portland, Oregon, and rekindled the old name of Portland Rosebuds, which had been out of use since 1918. With the move into the U.S. came a name change for the WCHL - "Canada" was dropped and the league was renamed the Western Hockey League (WHL). In the eastern half of the continent, the NHL eventually achieved relative stability through large-scale expansion to the U.S. and the NFL achieved prosperity by abandoning most of its smaller cities in favour of large markets. Such a path to success was not a viable option for the WHL because few U.S. cities west of the Mississippi River had large arenas with ice plants in the 1920s. For example, St. Louis did not have such a facility until an ice plant was installed in the St. Louis Arena in 1931.  The Edmonton Eskimos won the regular season for the third time in five seasons, but it was the Victoria Cougars who won the league championship and moved on to play for the Stanley Cup. Expectations were high for the defending Stanley Cup champions, but Montreal's other NHL team, the Montreal Maroons, were too strong for Victoria handily beating them three games to one and out scoring them 10 to 3.  By the 1925-26 season, WHL teams were openly selling players to their richer NHL rivals to stay afloat. Nevertheless, financial problems were too great to overcome, the NHL board of governors intervened by purchasing the contracts of every player in the WHL for $258,000 and the league formally disbanded. While the remnants of five former WHL teams immediately formed the professional Prairie Hockey League, the western teams had been stripped of their best players while the NHL and the Stanley Cup's trustees regarded the PrHL as a new minor league and not a continuation of the major professional WHL. The new league would contract to just three Saskatchewan-based teams by 1927 and disappear altogether in 1928.  Although rival leagues were not formally barred from challenging for the Cup until 1947, the WHL's collapse left the NHL as the only top-level professional league in North America. In the meantime, the Cup trustees refused to accept challenges from any rival league. In what was the most significant expansion of its early era, the NHL added three teams for its 1926-27 season, all of which survived the Great Depression to form half of the so-called Original Six in later years. Separate deals were made in stocking the new teams. The rights to the Victoria Cougars' players were bought by the Detroit franchise (which would eventually become the Detroit Red Wings) causing the team to be named the Detroit Cougars in their honor, and the Portland Rosebuds' players' rights were purchased by Frederic McLaughlin for his new Black Hawks team. The New York Rangers did not come to any similar agreement, but nevertheless were the most dominant team of the three in its early years, winning a Stanley Cup in only its second season.

The Western Canada Hockey League (WCHL), founded in 1921, was a major professional ice hockey league originally based in the prairies of Canada. It was renamed the Western Hockey League (WHL) in 1925 and disbanded in 1926.

La – Ligue de hockey de l'Ouest du Canada en français et également désignée par le sigle WCHL – est une ligue de hockey sur glace professionnelle fondée en 1921, originellement basée dans les Prairies canadiennes. La Ligue nationale de hockey (LNH) commence à devenir la ligue de hockey dominante en Amérique du Nord après la Première Guerre mondiale alors que pour l'Association de hockey de la Côte du Pacifique (PCHA) le contraire se passe ; aussi, afin de concurrencer la LNH, il est décidé qu'il faut plus d'équipes l'Ouest canadien et tout particulièrement dans les Prairies. C'est ainsi que la WCHL est née en 1921 en tant que « ligue sœur » de la PCHA. Contrairement à la LNH, qui modifie les règles du hockey pour en améliorer le jeu, cette ligue et la PCHL utilisent certaines anciennes règles du hockey, avec par exemple la présence d'un septième joueur sur la glace, le « rover ». Ce joueur est cependant retiré du jeu dès la deuxième saison de la ligue. À la création de la WCHL, renommée " en 1925, il est admis que l'équipe championne de la ligue affronte celle de la PCHA et que le vainqueur joue la finale de la Coupe Stanley contre l'équipe championne de la LNH.


Biography.

Early life.

Aglukark was born in Churchill, Manitoba and raised in Arviat, Northwest Territories (now in Nunavut). She endured sexual abuse as a child and has been vocal about this trend in some of the first nations in Northern Ontario. After graduating from high school, she worked in Ottawa, Ontario as a linguist with the Department of Indian & Northern Affairs, and then returned to the Northwest Territories to work as an executive assistant with the Inuit Tapirisat of Canada.

Career.

While working with the Inuit Tapirisat, she began to perform as a singer, and quickly became a popular performer in Inuit communities. She soon attracted the attention of the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, who included her in a compilation of Arctic performers. In 1992, she released an independent album, "Arctic Rose". The following year, she signed to a major record label, releasing an album of Christmas music that year.  Aglukark has also acted as spokesperson for several non-profit groups working with aboriginal and Inuit youth, notably through her writing workshops for Attawapiskat youth and her involvement in Northern Canada's food crisis. However, she has said that while she is proud to be a role model for aboriginal people in Canada, she ultimately sees herself as an artist with a universal message of self-respect and strength to which she hopes that people of all cultural backgrounds can relate.

This Child.

"This Child", released in 1995, became her breakthrough album. The first single from that album, "O Siem", went to number one on the Canadian adult contemporary and country charts that year, making Aglukark the first Inuk performer to have a Top 40 hit. "Hina Na Ho (Celebration)" and "Breakin' Down" became hit singles as well. The album was eventually certified triple platinum (300,000 copies sold) in Canada.

Unsung Heroes.

In 2000, Aglukark released "Unsung Heroes", which spawned another pop hit with "One Turn Deserves Another." This album also included "Turn of the Century," a song about the creation of Nunavut. In 2004, she released "Big Feeling".  She sometimes deals with painful subjects in her songs. "Kathy" is about her niece who committed suicide, and "Still Running" is about the trauma of sexual abuse. Aglukark has also recorded a version of "Amazing Grace" in Inuktitut.  Her song "Never Be the Same" was featured on "Dawson's Creek" in Episode No. 3–14 ("Valentine's Day Massacre"), as well as her song "One Turn Deserves Another" in Episode No. 3–15 ("Crime And Punishment").  Aglukark's second holiday album, "Dreaming of Home", was released on 5 November 2013.  She currently resides in Oakville, Ontario.

Awards and recognition.

In 2004, Aglukark was awarded an honorary DFA from the University of Lethbridge. She was named an officer of the Order of Canada in 2005, and in the same year received an honorary LL.D. degree from the University of Alberta. In the summer of 2006, she performed nightly in the evening grandstand show at the Calgary Stampede.

References.

Citations

Susan Aglukark, (Inuktitut syllabics: <unk> ᐊ<unk>ᒃᑲ<unk> "suusan agluukkaq"), (born 27 January 1967) is an Inuit musician whose blend of Inuit folk music traditions with country and pop songwriting has made her a major recording star in Canada. Her most successful song/single is "O Siem", which reached No. 1 on the Canadian country and adult contemporary charts in 1995. Overall, she has released seven studio albums and has won three Juno Awards.

Susan Aglukark (inuktitut: <unk> ᐊ<unk>ᒃᑲ<unk>), née le, est une chanteuse canadienne. Son mélange de musique folklorique inuit et de musique populaire lui a valu une reconnaissance au Canada.


Biography.

Giovanni di Bicci de' Medici was born in Florence, Italy. He was the son of Averardo de' Medici and Jacopa Spini. His father, Averardo died in 1363 with a respectable amount of wealth. This inheritance was divided among Giovanni and his four brothers, leaving Giovanni with very little. However, his uncle, Vieri de’ Medici, was still a prominent banker in Florence. Vieri helped Giovanni begin his career in the Florentine banking system. He worked his way up through the ranks, eventually becoming a junior partner in the branch located in Rome. Vieri de’ Medici retired in 1393 leaving the bank in the hands of Giovanni. From this point the Medici bank grew vastly and quickly. This growth culminated with the acquisition as the Chief Papal Banker, which meant that the Medici Bank now handled the accounts of the Church. The Medici family bank, which he founded in 1397, became his main commercial interest. The Medici bank under Giovanni had branches throughout the northern Italian city-states and beyond, and constituted an early "multi-national" company.  Giovanni owned two wool workshops in Florence and was a member of two guilds: the "Arte della Lana" and the "Arte del Cambio". In 1402, he served as one of the judges on the panel that selected Lorenzo Ghiberti's design for the bronzes on the doors to the Florence Baptistery. Giovanni also funded the construction of the sacristy in the Church of San Lorenzo in the year 1418. He picked Brunelleschi to be the architect and chose Donatello to create the sculptures. These are just a few of the many contributions that Giovanni made to the art world.  In 1414, Giovanni bet on the permanent return of the papacy to Rome after a long period of exile and schism, and was correct; the papacy was permanently installed in Rome in 1417 under a single pope after the deliberations of the Council of Constance. Rewarding Giovanni for his support, Pope Martin V gave Giovanni's general manager control of the Apostolic Chamber. Subsequent popes also made use of the services of the Medici banks, and in addition, Giovanni was able to secure tax-farming contracts and the rights to many alum mines from the papacy. He set his family on the path to becoming one of the richest dynasties in Europe, thereby making an essential stride towards its later cultural and political prominence. One way in which he laid the groundwork for this was by marrying Piccarda Bueri, whose old and respectable family brought him a large dowry.  In 1418, Giovanni collaborated with one of Florence's chief nobles, Niccolò da Uzzano, to secure the release of the deposed Antipope John XXIII, who was imprisoned in Germany. De Medici paid the stiff ransom of 38,000 ducats himself, and when the former pope died the following year in Florence, de Medici sponsored the construction of his magnificent tomb in the Baptistery.  Despite his growing wealth, Giovanni was diligent in his efforts not to separate the Medici family from the other citizens in Florence. He did so by continuously ensuring that he and his sons dressed and behaved like the average working-class citizens of Florence. This was in part due to his desire not to draw undue attention to himself and his family, and to ensure that, unlike other wealthy families, the Medici remained in the favour of the population. His hopes were to build a positive reputation of his family by avoiding conflicts with the law and keeping the people of Florence happy. His disposition can be understood in his writings, "Strive to keep the people at peace, and the strong places well cared for. Engage in no legal complications, for he who impedes the law shall perish by the law. Do not draw public attention on yourselves yet keep free from blemish as I leave you."

Political activity.

Giovanni stayed at arms length from politics for much of his life, but he was urged to reluctantly accept various positions of high office throughout his life in the Signoria of Florence because of the prestige and universal popularity he enjoyed in the city. His attitude is exemplified in his writings to his son Cosimo, saying, "Do not make the government-house your work shop, but wait until you are called to it, then show your selves obedient." He served as a "Priore" in the Signoria in 1402, 1408 and 1411 and as a "Gonfaloniere" for the statutory two-month period in 1421. In 1407, he also served as the governor of the city of Pistoia.  In the sphere of politics, Giovanni stayed true to his reputation and the tradition of the Medici family as champions of the people and intractable opponents of the nobility of Florence. In 1426, he exerted his considerable personal influence in the Signoria to replace Florence's inequitable and oppressive poll tax with the "Catasto". This was a more regular property tax devised by Giovanni, which lifted the tax burden from the poorer classes in Florence and made it more difficult for the nobility to evade their share. The following year he once again wielded his personal authority and influence in the Signoria to block the passage of oligarchic reforms proposed by the nobility, which would have repealed the ban on nobles serving in the Signoria, and removed some of the lesser guilds from being represented there.

Legacy.

When he died, di Bicci was one of the richest men in Florence, as shown by his tax report of 1429. It was reported that upon his death, he was the second richest man in Florence, leaving an abundance of wealth to his son Cosimo. This wealth and banking system led to Cosimo becoming one of the wealthiest men in Europe. Also upon his death, he had become a favourite amongst the Florentine public, with even professional rival Niccolò da Uzzano. Niccolò states in a letter to Giovanni's sons that he had made the family beloved by the people and positioned them for great success. In 1420, Giovanni had given the majority of control of the bank to his two sons, Cosimo and Lorenzo. Upon his death in 1429, he was buried in the Old Sacristy of the Basilica of San Lorenzo, Florence, and his wife was buried with him after her death four years later.

Fictional depictions.

Giovanni de' Medici is portrayed by Dustin Hoffman in the 2016 television series "".

Giovanni di Bicci de' Medici (c. 1360 – February 1429) was an Italian banker and founder of the Medici Bank. While other members of the Medici family, such as Chiarissimo di Giambuono de' Medici, who served in the Signoria of Florence in 1201, and Salvestro de' Medici, who was implicated in the Ciompi Revolt of 1378, are of historical interest, it was Giovanni's founding of the family bank that truly initiated the family's rise to power in Florence. He was the father of Cosimo de' Medici and of Lorenzo the Elder; grandfather of Piero di Cosimo de' Medici; great-grandfather of Lorenzo de' Medici (the Magnificent); and the great-great-great-grandfather of Cosimo I de' Medici, Grand Duke of Tuscany.

Jean de Médicis ("Giovanni de' Medici"), surnommé "di Bicci", est né vers 1360 à Florence, et est mort le, à l'âge de 69 ans.


Life.

Fritz Perls was born in Berlin, Germany, in 1893. Perls grew up on the bohemian scene in Berlin, participated in Expressionism and Dadaism, and experienced the turning of the artistic avant-garde toward the revolutionary left. Deployment to the front line, the trauma of war, anti-Semitism, intimidation, escape, and the Holocaust are further key sources of biographical influence.  He was expected to practice law, following his distinguished uncle Herman Staub, but instead he studied medicine. Perls joined the German Army during World War I, and spent time in the trenches. After the war in 1918 he returned to his medical studies graduating two years later, specializing in neuropsychiatry as a medical doctor, and then became an assistant to Kurt Goldstein, who worked with brain injured soldiers. Perls gravitated toward psychoanalysis.  In 1927 Fritz Perls became a member of Wilhelm Reich's technical seminars in Vienna. Reich's concept of character analysis influenced Perls to a large extent. And in 1930 Reich became Perls' supervising senior analyst in Berlin.  In 1930 Fritz Perls married Laura Perls (born, Lore Posner), and they had two children together, Renate and Stephen. In 1933, soon after the Hitler regime came to power, being of Jewish descent, and because of their anti-fascist political activities in the time before, Fritz Perls, Laura, and their eldest child Renate fled to the Netherlands, and one year later they emigrated to South Africa, where Fritz Perls started a psychoanalytic training institute. In 1936 he had a brief and unsatisfactory meeting with Freud.  In 1942 Fritz Perls joined the South African army, and he served as an army psychiatrist with the rank of captain until 1946. While in South Africa, Perls was influenced by the "holism" of Jan Smuts. During this period Fritz Perls co-wrote his first book, "Ego, Hunger, and Aggression" (published in 1942 and re-published in 1947). Laura Perls wrote two chapters of the book, although when it was re-published in the United States she was not given any recognition for her work.  Fritz and Laura Perls left South Africa in 1946 and ended up in New York City, where Fritz Perls worked briefly with Karen Horney, and Wilhelm Reich. After living through a peripatetic episode, during which he lived in Montreal and served as a cruise ship psychiatrist, Perls finally settled in Manhattan. Perls wrote his second book with the assistance of New York intellectual and author, Paul Goodman, who drafted the theoretical second part of the book based upon Perls' hand-written notes. Perls and Goodman were influenced by the work of Kurt Lewin and Otto Rank. Along with the experiential first part, written with Ralph Hefferline, the book was entitled "Gestalt Therapy" and published in 1951.  Thereafter, Fritz and Laura Perls started the first Gestalt Institute in their Manhattan apartment. Fritz Perls began traveling throughout the United States in order to conduct Gestalt workshops and training.  In 1960 Fritz Perls left Laura Perls behind in Manhattan and moved to Los Angeles, where he practiced in conjunction with Jim Simkin. He started to offer workshops at Esalen Institute in Big Sur, California, in 1963. Perls became interested in Zen during this period, and incorporated the idea of "mini-satori" (a brief awakening) into his practice. He also traveled to Japan, where he stayed in a Zen monastery.  Eventually, he settled at Esalen, and even built a house on the grounds. One of his students at Esalen was Dick Price, who developed Gestalt Practice, based in large part upon what he learned from Perls. At Esalen, Perls collaborated with Ida Rolf, founder of Rolfing Structural Integration, to address the relationship between the mind and the body.  Perls has been widely cited outside the realm of psychotherapy for a quotation often described as the "Gestalt prayer":  In 1969 Perls left Esalen and started a Gestalt community at Lake Cowichan on Vancouver Island, Canada.  Fritz Perls died of heart failure in Chicago, on March 14, 1970, after heart surgery at the Louis A. Weiss Memorial Hospital.

Reception.

Perls' approach to therapy was included in criticism by Jeffrey Masson, a psychoanalyst who feuded with journalists and with the psychoanalytic community generally over his controversial theories disputing the effectiveness of psychotherapy. Masson said that Perls was sexist, as well as physically and emotionally abusive towards women in his private life. Masson quoted Perls from his autobiography, "In and Out the Garbage Pail", where Perls wrote: Once I was called to a group to calm down a girl who attacked everyone in the group physically. The group members tried to hold her and to calm her down. In vain. Again and again she got up and fought. When I came in she charged with her head down into my belly and nearly knocked me over: Then I let her have it until I had her on the floor. Up she came again. And then a third time. I got her down again and said, gasping: "I've beaten up more than one bitch in my life." Then she got up, threw her arms around me: "Fritz, I love you." Apparently she finally got what, all her life, she was asking for.  And there are thousands of women like her in the States. Provoking and tantalizing, bitching, irritating their husbands and never getting their spanking. You don't have to be a Parisian prostitute to need that so as to respect your man. A Polish saying is: "My husband lost interest in me, he never beats me any more." Therapist Barry Stevens, who met Fritz Perls for the first time in 1967, described a different impression of him. She wrote: "... I know that Fritz doesn't like his arrogance, and along with it, he has such a beautiful humility." And later she said: "Fritz is almost always a very warm and gentle old gentleman now."  Stevens also described another incident from a group therapy session: "... Fritz Perls asked us all a question and waited for answers.... I said nothing. He said 'Barry?' 'I'm blank," I said. He nodded and went on to someone or something else. How nice to have my blankness easily accepted."  Erving Polster, psychologist and Gestalt therapist, founding faculty member of the Gestalt Institute of Cleveland in 1953, said about Fritz Perls: “From Fritz I got the realization that a person could have incredible range in characteristics. I could experience Fritz as the most cutting and as the most tender of all people.”

Friedrich (Frederick) Salomon Perls (July 8, 1893 – March 14, 1970), better known as Fritz Perls, was a noted German-born psychiatrist, psychoanalyst and psychotherapist. Perls coined the term 'Gestalt therapy' to identify the form of psychotherapy that he developed with his wife, Laura Perls, in the 1940s and 1950s. Perls became associated with the Esalen Institute in 1964, and he lived there until 1969.

Fritz Perls, né le à Berlin et mort le à Chicago, est un psychiatre et psychothérapeute allemand. Il est le fondateur de la Gestalt-thérapie, qu'il a élaborée à partir de 1942 en collaboration avec son épouse, Laura Posner Perls et avec Paul Goodman.


Biography.

Literary Beginnings and Influences.

Joseph Zobel grew up with the support and unconditional love his grandmother and his mother. His mother, Delia, was forced to work as a nanny for a Békés (white Creoles) family, the Des Grotte family, in Fort-de-France, the capital of Martinique.  Young Zobel was a brilliant student, earning himself a scholarship that allowed him to pursue an education and finish high school. After finishing his high school studies, he had hoped to study architecture in Paris. Unfortunately, he did not have the funds or another scholarship to help pay for such endeavors. Instead, he got his first job with the Corps of Bridges, Waters and Forests which forced him to move closer to the water in South Martinique, specifically to the towns of Diamant and Saint-Esprit. His time in Diamant and Saint-Esprit allowed him to become well acquainted with the local fishermen and to learn more about their lifestyle, which would later influence his popular novel "La Rue Cases-Nègres". Despite gaining an appreciation for the lifestyle on the coast, he couldn't forget the values he grew up with in the more rural inland of Martinique.  During World War II, there was a blockade on the French West Indies preventing anybody, including Zobel, from leaving Martinique or traveling to France. While he was in Martinique, he worked as a teacher and then a school master of Lycée Victor-Schœlcher, a boarding school in Fort-de-France. In the meantime, he found ways to express himself by writing short stories. His friends would read the stories for him. One friend, a fellow physical education teacher, brought the stories to a newspaper called Le Sportif who published the stories with popular success. The Martiniquais appreciated Zobel’s stories because they accurately portrayed the habits and customs of the island and its people without exaggerating the exoticism of their lifestyle.  Aimé Césaire, a young agrégé at the time, taught in the same high school as Zobel. He had an appreciation for Zobel’s writings and encouraged him to write a novel. Inspired by his experience working in the village of fishers in Diamant, Zobel wrote "Diab’-là" in 1942. It was a story about a peasant who decided to win his freedom by working the land near a community of fishermen. When Zobel first wanted to publish the novel, Martinique was governed by Admiral Robert, an authoritarian representative of the Vichy government, delaying publication until 1947.

Time in France and Literary Career.

In 1946, Zobel took advantage of his administrative leave and went to Paris to continue his studies. In Sorbonne, he took courses in literature, dramatic art, and ethnology. Additionally, he earned a position as an assistant professor at the Lycée François 1er de Fontainebleau.  Settled in Fontainebleau with his wife and three children, Zobel devoted the 1950s to intense literary activity and writing. He published numerous novels such as "Les Jours Immobiles" and "La Fête à Paris". He also wrote many poems which he recited at various festivals in France, Switzerland, and Italy. Most notably, in 1950, Zobel published one of his principle works, "La Rue Cases-Nègres", a story greatly influenced by his childhood and time in Martinique. The story recounts a child, without much experience in the world, and a grandmother, who is experienced but softens her perspective of the world, resulting in a rare testimony to the West Indian Black community at the time. The Éditions Albin Michel refused to publish the text because of the Creole-inspired phrases. It was Alioune Diop who finally published "La Rue Cases-Nègres" in his newly created publishing house and magazine, Présence Africaine. The novel proceeded to go down in history in France and in the African continent.

Time in Africa.

In 1957, Zobel, driven by his desire to know Africa, used his relationships with some Senegalese friends in Paris to find a way into the continent. He was recruited to become a college director by the Senegalese Minister of Education, Amadou Matar M’bow, as a college director at school of Ziguinchor (at present the Lycée Djignabo) in Casamance.  After a few years as a general supervisor of the Van Vollenhoven school in Dakar, he became a producer of educational and cultural programs at the Radio of Senegal. His programs were heard throughout French-speaking West Africa. Some anecdotes of his experiences in Dakar are recounted in the collections of short stories "Mas Badara" (1983) and "Et si la mer n’était pas bleue" (1982).

Retirement and Final Publications.

Retiring in 1974, Zobel settled in the village of Générargues where he continued to write and even rewrite some novels: "Les Jours Immobiles" became "Les Mains pleines d’oiseaux" and "La Fête à Paris" became "Quand la neige aura fondu".  In 1995, Zobel published "D’Amour et de Silence", an art book of watercolors and some unpublished poems and extracts from his personal journal.  His final publications were published in 2002: "Gertal et autres nouvelles", a novel combining unpublished texts and extracts from his personal journal which he held from 1946-2002; "Le Soleil m’a dit", a complete poetic work.

Works.

His most famous novel, "La Rue Cases-Nègres" (often translated as "Black Shack Alley" or "Sugar Cane Alley"), was published in Paris 1950. The novel is an account of a young boy raised by his grandmother in a post-slavery - but still plantation-based - Martinique. The struggles of the impoverished cane-sugar plantation workers, and the ambitions of a loving grandmother who works hard to put the main character through school are the core focus of the novel, which also describes life in a colonial society. Zobel stated that the novel was his version of Richard Wright's "Black Boy" (1945) in that they are both semi-autobiographical.  The novel was adapted for the screen by Euzhan Palcy in 1983 as "Sugar Cane Alley".  While "La Rue Cases-Nègres" is Zobel's most renowned work, the author started his writing career in 1942 during World War Two with "Diab-la" (a tentative English title could be "The Devil's Garden"), a socially conscious novel similar to Jacques Roumain's "Masters of the Dew" (published a year or more later). With "Diab-la", Zobel tells the powerful story of a sugar-cane plantation worker freeing himself from colonial exploitation by creating a garden in a fishermen's village of Southern Martinique.  Leaving Martinique in 1946 to pursue ethnology and drama studies in Paris, Zobel spent some years in Paris and Fontainebleau, before relocating to Senegal by 1957. Writing a few short stories, he had a notable impact in the cultural life of French-speaking West Africa as a public radio producer.  A noted poet and a gifted sculptor as well as a writer, Zobel retired to a small village in southern France in 1974 and died in 2006.

Joseph Zobel (April 26, 1915 in Martinique – June 18, 2006 in Alès, France) is the author of several novels and short-stories in which social issues are at the forefront. Although his most famous novel, "La Rue Cases-Nègres", was published some twenty years after the great authors of Negritude published their works, Zobel was once asked if he considered himself "the novelist of Negritude".

Joseph Zobel, né le à Rivière-Salée Martinique et mort le à Alès, il est un romancier et un poète martiniquais, considéré comme l'un des auteurs les plus significatifs de la littérature antillaise. Né dans un foyer martiniquais très modeste, il tire de son enfance un roman, "La Rue Cases-Nègres" qui reçoit le prix Lange de l’Académie française en 1954 et qui est porté à l'écran par Euzhan Palcy en 1982.