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Order Of The Cross Of Terra Mariana
The Order of the Cross of Terra Mariana ( et, Maarjamaa Risti teenetemärk, sometimes translated as the Order of the Cross of St. Mary's Land) was instituted by the President of Estonia, Lennart Meri, on 16 May 1995 to honour the independence of the Estonian state. (The Latin name ''Terra Mariana'', meaning "Land of Mary", is a poetic synonym for Estonia, and designated the area which includes what is now Estonia in medieval times.) The Order of the Cross of Terra Mariana is bestowed upon the President of the Republic. Presidents of the Republic who have ceased to hold office keep the Order of the Cross of Terra Mariana. The Collar of the Order was used ''de facto'' as the badge of office of the President of the Republic, since Soviet authorities took the original presidential collar, that of the Order of the National Coat of Arms, out of Estonia after the Soviet occupation of Estonia in 1940; it remains in the Kremlin in Moscow. A new collar of that order was made in 2008. Th ...
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Order Of The National Coat Of Arms
The Order of the National Coat of Arms ( et, Riigivapi teenetemärk, french: Ordre du Blason National) was instituted by Konstantin Päts on 7 October 1936 to commemorate 24 February 1918, the day on which Estonian independence was declared. The Order of the National Coat of Arms is bestowed only on Estonian citizens, as a decoration of the highest class for services rendered to the state. Classes The Order of the National Coat of Arms comprises six classes: * One special class – the Collar of the Order of the National Coat of Arms; * Five basic classes – 1st, 2nd, 3rd, 4th and 5th class. The greater national coat of arms as part of the decorations of all the classes of the Order of the National Coat of Arms, goldplated on both sides, bears on its reverse the embossed date "24. II 1918". The colour tone of the blue moiré ribands belonging to the decorations of all the classes of the Order of the National Coat of Arms is determined according to the international PANTONE colou ...
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Martti Ahtisaari
Martti Oiva Kalevi Ahtisaari (; born 23 June 1937) is a Finnish politician, the tenth president of Finland (1994–2000), a Nobel Peace Prize laureate, and a United Nations diplomat and mediator noted for his international peace work. Ahtisaari was a United Nations special envoy for Kosovo, charged with organizing the Kosovo status process negotiations, aimed at resolving a long-running dispute in Kosovo, which later declared its independence from Serbia in 2008. In October 2008, he was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize "for his important efforts, on several continents and over more than three decades, to resolve international conflicts". The Nobel statement said that Ahtisaari had played a prominent role in resolving serious and long-lasting conflicts, including ones in Namibia, Aceh (Indonesia),
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Harald V
Harald V ( no, Harald den femte, ; born 21 February 1937) is King of Norway. He acceded to the throne on 17 January 1991. Harald was the third child and only son of King Olav V of Norway and Princess Märtha of Sweden. He was second in the line of succession at the time of his birth, behind his father. In 1940, as a result of the German occupation during World War II, the royal family went into exile. Harald spent part of his childhood in Sweden and the United States. He returned to Norway in 1945, and subsequently studied for periods at the University of Oslo, the Norwegian Military Academy, and Balliol College, Oxford. Following the death of his grandfather Haakon VII in 1957, Harald became crown prince as his father became king. A keen sportsman, he represented Norway in sailing at the 1964, 1968, and 1972 Olympic Games, and later became patron of World Sailing. Harald married Sonja Haraldsen in 1968, their relationship having initially been controversial due to her statu ...
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Ólafur Ragnar Grímsson
Ólafur Ragnar Grímsson (; born 14 May 1943) is an Icelandic politician who was the fifth president of Iceland from 1996 to 2016.Official CV. He was previously a member of the Icelandic Parliament for the People's Alliance and served as Minister of Finance from 1988 to 1991. Since the end of his presidency, Ólafur has been serving as Chairman of the Arctic Circle, a non-profit organization, and as Chairman of the International Renewable Energy Agency's Global Commission on the Geopolitics of Energy Transformation. Early life Ólafur was born in Ísafjörður, the son of barber Grímur Kristgeirsson and housewife Svanhildur Ólafsdóttir Hjartar. He matriculated from Menntaskólinn í Reykjavík in 1962. From 1962 to 1970 he studied at the University of Manchester, obtaining a Bachelor of Arts degree in economics and political science in 1965 and a Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) degree in political science in 1970, thus becoming the first Icelander to earn a PhD in this field. He ...
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Aleksander Kwaśniewski
Aleksander Kwaśniewski (; born 15 November 1954) is a Polish politician and journalist. He served as the President of Poland from 1995 to 2005. He was born in Białogard, and during communist rule, he was active in the Socialist Union of Polish Students and was the Minister for Sport in the Communist government during the 1980s. After the fall of Communism, he became a leader of the left-wing Social Democracy of the Republic of Poland, a successor to the former ruling Polish United Workers' Party, and a co-founder of the Democratic Left Alliance. Kwaśniewski was elected to the presidency in 1995, defeating the incumbent, Lech Wałęsa. He was re-elected to a second and final term as president in 2000 in a decisive first-round victory. Although he was praised for attempting to further integrate Poland into the European Union, he faced criticism for involving the country in the Iraq War. His term ended on 23 December 2005, when he handed over power to his elected successor, con ...
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Algirdas Brazauskas
Algirdas Mykolas Brazauskas (, 1932 – 2010) was the first President (fourth overall) of a newly re-independent post-Soviet Lithuania from 1993 to 1998 and Prime Minister from 2001 to 2006. He also served as head of the Communist Party of Lithuania that broke with Moscow. Biography Brazauskas was born in Rokiškis, Lithuania. He finished Kaišiadorys High School in 1952 and graduated from Kaunas Polytechnic Institute in 1956 with a degree in civil engineering. He later served as a Conscript sailor in the Soviet Navy, serving as a Fire controlman on board the Riga-class frigate ''Rosomacha'' until 1960. In 1967 Brazauskas started working in the Governmental Planning Committee, as a Committee's head's assistant. In 1974, Brazauskas received PhD in economics. Family He divorced his first wife, Julia, with whom he had two daughters; he married Kristina Butrimienė in 2002. Political career He took various positions in the government of Lithuanian SSR and Communist Party of L ...
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Süleyman Demirel
Süleyman Sami Demirel (; 1 November 1924 – 17 June 2015) was a Turkish people, Turkish politician, engineer, and statesman who served as the List of Presidents of Turkey, 9th President of Turkey from 1993 to 2000. He previously served as the Prime Minister of Turkey seven times between the years 1965 and 1993. He was the leader of the Justice Party (Turkey), Justice Party (AP) from 1964 to 1980 and the leader of the True Path Party (DYP) from 1987 to 1993. Having been identified as a potential future Prime Minister by Adnan Menderes, Demirel was elected leader of the Justice Party in 1964 and managed to bring down the government of İsmet İnönü in 1965 despite not being a Member of Parliament. He supported the government of Suat Hayri Ürgüplü until his party won a parliamentary majority in 1965 Turkish general election, 1965. He became the first Prime Minister born in the Republic of Turkey. Claiming that his Justice Party was the successor of the banned Democrat Party ( ...
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Oscar Luigi Scalfaro
Oscar Luigi Scalfaro (; 9 September 1918 – 29 January 2012) was the president of Italy from 1992 to 1999. A member of Christian Democracy (DC), he became an independent politician after the DC's dissolution in 1992, and was close to the centre-left Democratic Party when it was founded in 2007. Biography Scalfaro was born in Novara, Province of Novara, on 9 September 1918,Page at Senate website
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son of Guglielmo, Barone Scalfaro (born , 21 December 1888) and wife Rosalia Ussino. He was raised in a religious atmosphere. He became a member of the association Azione Cattolica (Catholic Action) at the age of 12 and kept its badge on his lapel until his death.
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Milan Kučan
Milan Kučan (; born 14 January 1941) is a Slovene politician who served as the first President of Slovenia from 23 December 1991 until 22 December 2002. Before being president of Slovenia, he was the 13th President of the Presidency of SR Slovenia from 10 May 1990 to 23 December 1991. Kučan also served as the 7th President of the League of Communists of Slovenia from May 1986 until December 1989. Early life and political beginnings Kučan, one of five children, was born in a teachers' family. His parents were Koloman Küčan (1911–1944) and Marija Varga (1917–1975). He was raised in the village of Križevci, located in the largely agrarian border region of Prekmurje in the Drava Banovina of the Kingdom of Yugoslavia (present-day Slovenia). His father Koloman died during World War II. Kučan's family spent World War II in occupied Serbia, where over 58,000 other Slovenians were resettled from Slovenia by the Nazis. He later studied law at the University of Ljubljana an ...
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Árpád Göncz
Árpád Göncz (; 10 February 1922 – 6 October 2015) was a Hungarian writer, translator, agronomist, and liberal politician who served as President of Hungary from 2 May 1990 to 4 August 2000. Göncz played a role in the Hungarian Revolution of 1956, for which he was imprisoned for six years. After his release, he worked as a translator of English-language literary works. He was also a founding member of the Alliance of Free Democrats (SZDSZ) and Speaker of the National Assembly of Hungary (''de facto'' head of state) before becoming president. He was Hungary's first freely elected head of state, as well as the first in 42 years who was not a communist or a fellow traveller. He was a member of the international advisory council of the Victims of Communism Memorial Foundation. Biography Early life (1922–1945) Árpád Göncz was born on 10 February 1922 in Budapest into a petty bourgeois family of noble origin as the son of Lajos Göncz de Gönc (1887–1974), who worked ...
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Guntis Ulmanis
Guntis Ulmanis (born September 13, 1939), also known as Guntis Rumpītis from 1949 to 1989, is a Latvian politician and the fifth President of Latvia from 1993 to 1999. Biography Early life Guntis Ulmanis was born in Riga on September 13, 1939. His great uncle Kārlis Ulmanis was Latvian Prime Minister. In 1941 following the Soviet occupation, Guntis Ulmanis and his family were deported to Krasnoyarsk Krai, Siberia, Russian SFSR. In 1946, they returned to Latvia, but were not allowed to settle in Riga, so they stayed at Ēdole in the Kuldīga area of the Latvian SSR. In 1949, the remainder of the Ulmanis family was supposed to be deported in the upcoming March deportation, but Guntis Ulmanis was able to avoid that fate, as his mother remarried and his surname was changed to Rumpītis. They then moved to Jūrmala, where he attended school. After graduating, he entered the economic faculty of the Latvian State University. Career in Latvia After completing his studies in the un ...
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Václav Havel
Václav Havel (; 5 October 193618 December 2011) was a Czech statesman, author, poet, playwright, and former dissident. Havel served as the last president of Czechoslovakia from 1989 until the dissolution of Czechoslovakia in 1992 and then as the first president of the Czech Republic from 1993 to 2003 and was the first democratically elected president of either country after the fall of communism. As a writer of Czech literature, he is known for his plays, essays, and memoirs. His educational opportunities having been limited by his bourgeois background, when freedoms were limited by the Czechoslovak Socialist Republic, Havel first rose to prominence as a playwright. In works such as '' The Garden Party'' and ''The Memorandum'', Havel used an absurdist style to criticize the Communist system. After participating in the Prague Spring and being blacklisted after the Warsaw Pact invasion of Czechoslovakia, he became more politically active and helped found several dissident ini ...
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