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Soviet Invasion Of Czechoslovakia (1968)
The Warsaw Pact invasion of Czechoslovakia refers to the events of 20–21 August 1968, when the Czechoslovak Socialist Republic was jointly invaded by four Warsaw Pact countries: the Soviet Union, the Polish People's Republic, the People's Republic of Bulgaria and the Hungarian People's Republic. The invasion stopped Alexander Dubček's Prague Spring liberalisation reforms and strengthened the authoritarian wing of the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia (KSČ). About 250,000 Warsaw Pact troops (afterwards rising to about 500,000), supported by thousands of tanks and hundreds of aircraft, participated in the overnight operation, which was code-named Operation Danube. The Socialist Republic of Romania and the People's Republic of Albania refused to participate, while East German forces, except for a small number of specialists, were ordered by Moscow not to cross the Czechoslovak border just hours before the invasion because of fears of greater resistance if German troops were inv ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Cold War
The Cold War is a term commonly used to refer to a period of geopolitical tension between the United States and the Soviet Union and their respective allies, the Western Bloc and the Eastern Bloc. The term '' cold war'' is used because there was no large-scale fighting directly between the two superpowers, but they each supported major regional conflicts known as proxy wars. The conflict was based around the ideological and geopolitical struggle for global influence by these two superpowers, following their temporary alliance and victory against Nazi Germany and Imperial Japan in 1945. Aside from the nuclear arsenal development and conventional military deployment, the struggle for dominance was expressed via indirect means such as psychological warfare, propaganda campaigns, espionage, far-reaching embargoes, rivalry at sports events, and technological competitions such as the Space Race. The Western Bloc was led by the United States as well as a number of other First W ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Nikolai Podgorny
Nikolai Viktorovich Podgorny, ''Mykola Viktorovych Pidhornyy'' rus, Никола́й Ви́кторович Подго́рный, p=nʲɪkɐˈlaj ˈvʲiktərəvʲɪtɕ pɐdˈgornɨj, links=yes ( – 12 January 1983) was a Soviet statesman who served as the Chairman of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet, the head of state of the Soviet Union, from 1965 to 1977. Podgorny was born to a Ukrainian working-class family in the city of Karlovka in 18 February 1903. He later graduated from a local worker's school in 1926 before completing his education at the Kyiv Technological Institute of Food Industry in 1931. In 1930, Podgorny became a member of the ruling Communist Party of the Soviet Union and climbed up the Soviet hierarchy after years of service to the country's centrally planned economy. By 1953, Podgorny became Second Secretary of the Communist Party of Ukraine in 1953 before later serving as First Secretary of the Communist Party of Ukraine from 1957 to 1963. In October ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Lajos Czinege
Lajos Czinege (1924–1998) was a Hungarian military officer and politician, who served as Minister of Defence A defence minister or minister of defence is a Cabinet (government), cabinet official position in charge of a ministry of defense, which regulates the armed forces in sovereign states. The role of a defence minister varies considerably from coun ... from 1960 to 1984. References Magyar Életrajzi Lexikon 1924 births 1998 deaths People from Karcag Members of the Hungarian Working People's Party Members of the Hungarian Socialist Workers' Party Hungarian soldiers Defence ministers of Hungary {{Hungary-politician-stub ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
János Kádár
János József Kádár (; ; 26 May 1912 – 6 July 1989), born János József Czermanik, was a Hungarian communist leader and the General Secretary of the Hungarian Socialist Workers' Party, a position he held for 32 years. Declining health led to his retirement in 1988, and he died in 1989 after being hospitalized for pneumonia. Kádár was born in Fiume in poverty to a single mother. After living in the countryside for some years, Kádár and his mother moved to Budapest. He joined the Party of Communists in Hungary's youth organization, KIMSZ, and went on to become a prominent figure in the pre-1939 Communist Party, eventually becoming First Secretary. As a leader, he would dissolve the party and reorganize it as the Peace Party, but the new party failed to win much popular support. After World War II, with Soviet support, the Communist Party took power in Hungary. Kádár rose through the Party ranks, serving as Interior Minister from 1948 to 1950. In 1951 he was impris ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Dobri Dzhurov
Dobri Marinov Dzhurov (Bulgarian language, Bulgarian: Добри Маринов Джуров; 5 January 1916 – 17 June 2002) was a Bulgarian politician and military leader. He was the last Ministry of Defence (Bulgaria), Defense Minister of the People's Republic of Bulgaria from 1962 to 1990. Biography He participated in the resistance movement during the Second World War. He was the commander of a guerrilla brigade. After the 1944 Bulgarian coup d'état, communist coup in September 1944, he began work at the Ministry of the Interior and later became an officer of the Bulgarian Army. He became the Minister of People's Defense of Bulgaria in 1962. He was responsible for Bulgaria's participation in the invasion of Czechoslovakia by Warsaw Pact troops in 1968. He had been a full member of the CPB since 1974. Role in the downfall of Zhivkov Dzhurov played a key role in the ousting of longtime Communist leader Todor Zhivkov in December 1989. Although he and Zhivkov's relationshi ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Todor Zhivkov
Todor Hristov Zhivkov ( bg, Тодор Христов Живков ; 7 September 1911 – 5 August 1998) was a Bulgarian communist statesman who served as the ''de facto'' leader of the People's Republic of Bulgaria (PRB) from 1954 until 1989 as General Secretary of the Bulgarian Communist Party. He was the second longest-serving leader in the Eastern Bloc after Yumjaagiin Tsedenbal, the longest-serving leader within the Warsaw Pact and the longest-serving non-royal ruler in Bulgarian history. He became First Secretary of the Bulgarian Communist Party (BCP) in 1954 (General Secretary from April 1981), served as List of Prime Ministers of Bulgaria, Prime Minister from 1962 to 1971 and from 1971 onwards as List of heads of state of Bulgaria, Chairman of the State Council, concurrently with his post as First Secretary. He remained in these positions for 35 years, until 1989, thus becoming the second longest-serving leader of any European Eastern Bloc nation after World War II, and ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Florian Siwicki
Florian Siwicki (; 10 January 1925 – 11 March 2013) was a Polish military officer, diplomat and communist politician. He was a general in the Polish Army and Minister of Defense of Poland from 1983 to 1990. Military and political career Son of Elżbieta and Eugeniusz. His father was a non-commissioned officer. In 1930, Eugeniusz Siwicki was transferred to the reserve and moved with his family to village near Rivne. At first, he was the owner of a small, three-hectare farm, and later he was employed as a bookkeeper in the commune office. In April 1940, his father was arrested by NKVD officers. A month later, Florian and his mother were deported deep into the Soviet Union to the Arkhangelsk region. At the age of 17 he was forced to join the Red Army. From December 1942, he served in the 105 Independent Sapper Battalion, where he became the deputy commander of the platoon. In May 1943 he was in the ranks of the Polish Armed Forces in the USSR. He served in the 1st Tadeusz ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Wojciech Jaruzelski
Wojciech Witold Jaruzelski (; 6 July 1923 – 25 May 2014) was a Polish military officer, politician and ''de facto'' leader of the Polish People's Republic from 1981 until 1989. He was the First Secretary of the Polish United Workers' Party between 1981 and 1989, making him the last leader of the Polish People's Republic. Jaruzelski served as Prime Minister from 1981 to 1985, the Chairman of the Council of State from 1985 to 1989 and briefly as President of Poland from 1989 to 1990, when the office of President was restored after 37 years. He was also the last commander-in-chief of the Polish People's Army, which in 1990 became the Polish Armed Forces. Born to Polish nobility in Kurów in eastern (then-central) Poland, Jaruzelski was deported with his family to Siberia by the NKVD after the invasion of Poland. Assigned to forced labour in the Siberian wilderness, he developed photokeratitis which forced him to wear protective sunglasses for the rest of his life. In 1943, Jaru ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Józef Cyrankiewicz
Józef Adam Zygmunt Cyrankiewicz (; 23 April 1911 – 20 January 1989) was a Polish Socialist (PPS) and after 1948 Communist politician. He served as premier of the Polish People's Republic between 1947 and 1952, and again for 16 years between 1954 and 1970. He also served as Chairman of the Polish Council of State from 1970 to 1972. Early life Cyrankiewicz was born in Tarnów in what was then the Austro-Hungarian Empire, to father Józef (1881-1939) and mother Regina ''née'' Szpak (1880-1966). His father was a local activist of the National Democracy as well as lieutenant in the Polish Armed Forces while his mother was an owner of several sawmills. Cyrankiewicz attended the Jagiellonian University. He became secretary of the Kraków branch of the Polish Socialist Party in 1935. World War II Active in the Union of Armed Struggle (Związek Walki Zbrojnej, later renamed to Armia Krajowa), the Polish resistance organisation, from the beginning of Poland's 1939 defeat at the ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Marian Spychalski
Marian "Marek" Spychalski (, 6 December 1906 – 7 June 1980) was a Polish architect in pre-war Poland, and later, military commander and a communist politician. During World War II he belonged to the Polish underground forces operating within Poland and was one of the leaders of the People's Guard, then People's Army. He held several key political posts during the PRL era, most notably; Chairman of the Council of State, mayor of Warsaw and Defence Minister. Biography Early career Born to a working-class family in Łódź, Spychalski graduated from the Faculty of Architecture of the Warsaw University of Technology in 1931. That same year he joined the KPP,, translated by George Shriver and Stephen Shenfield. and kept his membership after the Nazi-Soviet invasion, when in 1942 KPP became the Polish Workers' Party, renamed in 1948 as the Polish United Workers' Party. Before World War II, he practised architecture and won several national and international competitions and a ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Władysław Gomułka
Władysław Gomułka (; 6 February 1905 – 1 September 1982) was a Polish communist politician. He was the ''de facto'' leader of post-war Poland from 1947 until 1948. Following the Polish October he became leader again from 1956 to 1970. Gomułka was initially very popular for his reforms; his seeking a "Polish way to socialism"; and giving rise to the period known as "Polish thaw". During the 1960s, however, he became more rigid and authoritarian—afraid of destabilizing the system, he was not inclined to introduce or permit changes. In the 1960s he supported the persecution of the Catholic Church, intellectuals and the anti-communist opposition. In 1967 to 1968, Gomułka allowed outbursts of anti-Zionist and antisemitic political campaign, pursued primarily by others in the Party, but utilized by Gomułka to retain power by shifting the attention from the stagnating economy. Many of the remaining Polish Jews left the country. At that time he was also responsible for pers ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Konstantin Provalov
Konstantin Ivanovich Provalov (Russian: Константин Иванович Провалов; 11 June 1906 – 10 December 1981) was a Soviet Army Colonel general and Hero of the Soviet Union. Provalov was awarded the title Hero of the Soviet Union and the Order of Lenin for his leadership of a regiment in the Battle of Lake Khasan. After Operation Barbarossa, Provalov became the commander of the 383rd Rifle Division. He led the division during the Battle of the Caucasus. In 1943, he became commander of the 16th Rifle Corps and fought in the Kerch–Eltigen Operation and Crimean Offensive. In May 1944, Provalov transferred to command the 113th Rifle Corps and led it during the Vitebsk–Orsha Offensive. In July he became commander of 36th Rifle Corps, which fought in the Minsk Offensive, the Gumbinnen Operation, the Battle of Königsberg and the Prague Offensive. Postwar, Probalov led the 3rd Guards Rifle Corps, 9th Guards Rifle Corps, 13th Rifle Corps and 31st Special R ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
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