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This was the central tragedy of the conflict. Before troops began marching in August 1914, common people’s lives were improving. Progress varied by nation and group, but even those at bottom in the great czarist despotism were doing better. Then came the continental war. Economic welfare was sacrificed by the various war machines; blockades, conquest and destruction wrecked once prosperous societies. Lives were sacrificed for no interest recognizable to those doing the fighting and dying. Just why were Germans, French, Britons, Russians, Austro-Hungarians, Serbs, Turks and others confronting each other on the battlefield?
Nowhere was the tragedy greater than in the mysterious, mystical, antiquated Russian Empire. Stretching from Europe to the Pacific, the vast country swallowed and destroyed Napoleon Bonaparte, Europe’s would-be conqueror, wrecking his imperial project. For a long time St. Petersburg was a force of conservatism, even reaction, opposed to Western liberalism and especially the French Revolution.
Germany’s “Iron Chancellor,” Otto von Bismarck, thought similarly while creating the new Prussian Empire. He forged the Dreikaiserbund, or Three Emperors’ League, which drew Germany together with its chief ally—Austria-Hungary—and Russia. Tensions between the latter two caused the arrangement to lapse in 1887, but Bismarck negotiated the Reinsurance Treaty with the czar, which provided for neutrality if either party ended up fighting Austria-Hungary or France. The pact ensured not just stability, but peace, by creating a firebreak to conflict in eastern Europe.
However, the young, bombastic, and unpredictable Kaiser Wilhelm II ascended to the throne and decided to take control. He ousted Bismarck and dropped the Reinsurance Treaty, assuming that Russia would never make common cause with the French Republic. However, the latter, anxious for revenge after losing a war and territory to Prussia in 1871, joined with St. Petersburg, which sought to dominate the Balkans to the detriment of Vienna. The new alliance effectively evolved into an offensive pact, since it would apply even if the treaty members instigated war.
But imperial Russia was a giant with feet of clay. In 1904 it lost an army, fleet and war to Japan in the Far East. Then popular unrest forced Czar Nicholas II to accept constitutional reform, including an elected State Duma. He lacked the intelligence and personality to stem the liberalizing currents; the regime staggered along unsteadily amid peace and prosperity.
Then came June 28, 1914. Russian officials probably knew of the Serbian plot against the archduke, which was an act of state terrorism. St. Petersburg nevertheless backed its small ally against Vienna, which was determined to destroy ethnic terrorists who threatened Habsburg rule. Austria-Hungary followed an ultimatum against Belgrade with a declaration of war, dragging in Russia, which defended Serbia; Germany, which backed Vienna; France, a treaty ally of St. Petersburg; and ultimately Great Britain, on Russia’s side as well. Other nations later joined Europe’s continental slaughterhouse.
Russian elites had various grievances against Germany, but none could justify war. In February 1914, former interior minister Pyotr Durnovo wrote a memorandum to the czar warning that in war St. Petersburg risked defeat, in which case the defeated army, the “legislative institutions and the intellectual opposition parties, lacking real authority in the eyes of the people, will be powerless to stem the popular tide, aroused by themselves, and Russia will be flung into hopeless anarchy.” Which is essentially what happened.
When pressed to mobilize the army, Czar Nicholas for a time temporized, at one point, declaring, “I will not become responsible for a monstrous slaughter.” But on July 30, he surrendered to St. Petersburg’s clamorous war party. Alas, there was no quick victory with allied armies meeting in Berlin. Instead, the losses in manpower and matériel were horrific.
In March 2017 (February on the old calendar), liberals and moderate socialists staged a revolution, forcing the czar to abdicate. But the Provisional Government’s control was tenuous, and it continued the war amid a series of revolts, mutinies, protests and disturbances—which opened the way for political radicals, most importantly the Bolsheviks, led by Vladimir Ilyich Ulyanov, better known as Lenin.
He began the war in exile in Zurich, Switzerland, but Germany arranged for his passage home to spread the revolutionary virus. He arrived in April and initially had little success. However, the Bolsheviks understood that the people were desperate for peace, land and food.
On November 7, Lenin and his colleagues staged what amounted to a coup against the hapless Provisional Government. The Bolsheviks still were but one faction vying for power. However, Lenin was a political genius: with his leadership they outmaneuvered more moderate forces on the left, made peace with Germany and won a bitter, four-year civil war against the Whites, who were bitterly divided between royalists and liberals but were backed by Imperial Russia’s erstwhile allies.
Lenin died in 1924, leading to a bitter succession battle, won by manipulative Joseph Stalin. Under him, millions died, including many of his supporters. Although revolutionary fervor had dissipated, the USSR staggered along, murdering and impoverishing its people, until December 1991. The Soviet flag finally was lowered from the Kremlin for the final time.
Yet the legacy of the Russian Revolution lives on. Scholars figure that communism killed between eight and sixty-one million Soviet citizens; fifteen to twenty million seems most accurate. Stalin mixed murder and famine. His Great Terror made killing routine, with the dictator approving endless lists of victims for execution. His henchmen were desperate to find ever more enemies to satisfy his paranoia: simply inquiring as to the fate of a loved one who’d been detained could result in one’s own arrest and death.
Estimates of the total number of dead due to communism—not counting from wars—run from eighty-five million to upwards of two hundred million. Not only are accurate numbers scarce, but researchers disagree over whether indirect deaths should be included: communist rulers both murdered promiscuously and implemented policies that resulted in mass death—through famine, for instance. The hardship, including poverty, starvation, oppression and inhumanity, is incalculable. Equally brutal was the assault on the human spirit. Marxism as adapted by Leninism squeezed the very life out of people.
Thankfully, as a governing force Marxism is largely dead. A few nominally communist states remain, but most aren’t real or serious. China is essentially fascist. North Korea is a modern version of an ancient Asian monarchy, masked with revolutionary rhetoric. Cuba is edging away from genuine communism. Yet the authoritarian spirit remains alive on the left, even in the West.
History is a long series of what-ifs. What if Gavrilo Princip had missed when he shot at the royal couple? What if European statesmen had been more determined to prevent war? What if the czar had followed his instincts and kept Russia out of the war? What if the Provisional Government had negotiated peace with Germany? What if Lenin had been left exiled in Zurich?
Communism almost certainly would not have taken over Russia, transforming the twentieth century for the great ill of mankind. But, unfortunately, we must confront the consequences of actual history, rather than what-ifs—including the birth of the Soviet state a century ago.
Doug Bandow is a senior fellow at the Cato Institute. A former special assistant to President Ronald Reagan, he is the author of several books, including Foreign Follies: America’s New Global Empire (Xulon).
For the first time in the history of the women’s basketball program, Ohio State has a four-time All-American.
Guard Kelsey Mitchell was selected as an Associated Press second-team All-American after her senior season in which she averaged 24.3 points per game, the third-most in the country. She was named a second-team All-American in 2015 and 2017, and was a first-team All-American in 2016.
In all four years of her career, Mitchell averaged at least 22 points per game and her team made the NCAA tournament after missing it the year prior to her arrival.
Mitchell and the Buckeyes suffered a disappointing loss to Central Michigan in the second round of the NCAA to end the season and the star guard’s career. Despite the abrupt end to her career, Mitchell finished her career ranked second in NCAA history with 3,402 career points. She also holds the record for most 3-pointers both made and attempted (497-for-1286) and ended her career on a 92-game streak with a made triple, the longest in NCAA history.
She earned the Big Ten Player of the Year Award in 2015 and 2017 and was named conference player of the year by the coaches this season.
The first team consisted of South Carolina forward A’ja Wilson, UConn forward Katie Lou Samuelson, Mississippi State guard Victoria Vivians, Louisville guard Asia Durr and Oregon guard Sabrina Ionescu.
Baylor forward Kalani Brown, Iowa forward Megan Gustafson, Notre Dame guard Arike Ogunbowale and UConn guard Gabby Williams joined Mitchell on the second team.
With her collegiate career now complete, Mitchell will realign her focus and direct her attention on preparing for the WNBA draft. She is viewed as one of the top two prospects, along with Wilson, in the 2018 WNBA Draft.
NEW YORK (AP) — BIG DROP: New York state Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli said Wall Street cash bonuses for 2011 are expected to drop 14 percent and profits are expected to drop by half for the second year in a row.
AVERAGE SLIDES: The average cash bonus is expected to be $121,150 for 2011, down from $138,940 in 2010. Bonuses peaked in 2006 at $191,360.
A track of pure birdsong is set to soar into the music charts in a bid to highlight how “nature is falling silent”.
The RSPB is releasing the song as part of its Let Nature Sing campaign, which highlights the fact that there are 40 million fewer birds in the UK now than half a century ago, and to experience its healing qualities.
Some of the most recognisable birdsongs that we used to enjoy, but that are on their way to disappearing forever, feature on the track, including the cuckoo, curlew, nightingale, crane and turtle dove who form part of the dawn chorus choir. All of the sounds are new recordings by RSPB birdsong expert Adrian Thomas, recorded on nature reserves and locations around the UK.
The track is designed to help reconnect the nation with nature, helping people find a moment to relax and promote a feeling of tranquillity, as birdsong has been proven to aid mental health and promote feelings of wellbeing.
Mr Harper added: “Children today are growing up with much less birdsong in the soundtrack to their lives.
The single, which has been directed by award-winning singer and musician Sam Lee and produced by the Globe Theatre’s musical director Bill Barclay, is available for pre-order now, before a general release on April 26.
Although the track is not designed to raise funds, any proceeds raised will go to help the charity’s 200 nature reserves around the UK.
The EU is at a “crossroads” between accepting a long period of austerity and high unemployment or taking steps to boost an economic recovery, Italian prime minister Matteo Renzi has warned.
Speaking in national parliament on Tuesday (24 June), Renzi told deputies that “high priests and prophets of austerity” were stifling the European economy.
Renzi’s government takes control of the EU’s six month rotating presidency next week and has indicated that migration and the bloc’s stability and growth pact will be its main policy priorities.
The Italian prime minister has led calls for the pact’s rules on budget deficits to be interpreted in a way that encourages more public investment.
He told parliament that although Rome would “respect the rules,” most notably the requirement to keep Italy’s budget deficit within 3 percent of GDP, “there are different ways of approaching rules”.
“Either we accept that we share common values, or you can keep your currency and we’ll keep our values,” he told deputies.
The language is likely to inflame opinion in Berlin, where Angela Merkel and her finance minister Wolfgang Schuaeble maintain that the 3 percent threshold offers sufficient flexibility, but momentum to revise the implementation of the pact has gained pace in recent weeks.
Meanwhile, a priorities paper drafted by Renzi and his Europe minister Sandro Gozi to be presented to EU leaders at this week’s summit in Brussels, states that the pact’s rules have been interpreted “in a restrictive fashion and used mainly to accommodate extreme recessions”.
The Italians’ second priority is to beef up the EU’s approach to migration, particularly from north African countries affected by the Arab Spring. It moots the possibility of creating an integrated system of Border Control Guards in Europe.
Despite only becoming prime minister in February, Renzi has quickly built a strong platform of support at home and abroad.
His centre-left Democratic party scored a decisive victory in May’s European election, taking 31 of Italy’s 73 MEP seats.
With the next European Commission not in place until October, Renzi’s presidency is well placed to define the agenda of the next five year legislature.
Turning a “blind eye” could see “this demand turn sour, fuelling anti-European, even xenophobic sentiment,” it adds.
Referring to the debate on whether Jean Claude Juncker will become the next President of the European Commission, Renzi noted that “those who imagine that the gap in Europe is filled with the nomination of Juncker are living on Mars”.
However, he is still expected to back the former Luxembourg premier.
Can Italy's 'political serial killer' change EU course on austerity?
In June 2013, Matteo Renzi was still pretending that his greatest ambition was to serve a second mandate as mayor of Florence. Now he is emerging as the biggest counterweight to German Chancellor Angela Merkel on the EU political landscape.
Well that was quite refreshing. In he bounded, the right side of 40, all grins and references to selfies and ancient philosophers, brash and self-confident.
Europe's selfie would be "tired, resigned and bored," Italy's prime minister told MEPs as he formally opened his country's six month presidency of the EU.
A combative Italian PM on Friday strongly criticised German central banker Jens Weidmann, but said there is no wider dispute with Berlin on fiscal policy.
Greece and Slovenia slashed public spending by over 10 percent in 2014, easily the largest falls across the EU.
ST. LOUIS – A woman who discovered her rental home was the likely site of several slayings by a suspected serial killer is moving out early after appealing to St. Louis public housing officials when her landlord wouldn't budge.
KMOV-TV (bit.ly/1mtN29H ) reports that Catrina McGhaw rented a house in Ferguson, Missouri that was once home to Maury Troy Travis. The 36-year-old waiter committed suicide in a county jail in 2002 after he was charged with killing two St. Louis area women. Police said he was a suspect in as many as 20 murders in the area.
McGhaw says she initially wasn't aware of the home's morbid past. The St. Louis Housing Authority told the television station that McGhaw can break the lease and move out at the end of this month.
"Miracle" is perhaps too strong a word, but it is a major marvel that in the current poisonous, take-no-prisoners atmosphere of Washington the Senate Judiciary Committee produced a complicated - 800-plus pages - and comprehensive overhaul of the nation's immigration laws, the first, despite repeated efforts, since the Reagan administration.
Moreover, speaking of marvels, the measure was bipartisan, drafted by the so-called "Gang of Eight," four Republicans and four Democrats, and was reported out of committee on a 13-5 bipartisan vote.
In businesslike fashion that reminded Senate watchers how things used to work before obstructionism and grandstanding became politics as usual, the panel marched steadily through 200 proposed amendments, some of them poison pills intended to make the bill unacceptable to one faction or another.
Along that line, committee Chairman Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., decided not to let the perfect be the enemy of the good when he let slide a deal-killing amendment of his that would have made the foreign spouses and partners of gay Americans eligible for green cards.
With a massive, groundbreaking piece of legislation like the immigration bill, it's important just to get the thing passed and worry about fixing any imperfections later. The measure makes a bow to a perennial GOP hobbyhorse by calling for stepped-up border security, irritates the Democrats' union backers in allowing foreign workers into the country legally for both high-tech and low-skilled jobs and gives the Democrats their long-sought goal of a path to citizenship for illegal immigrants already here, even though it would be a 13-year process.
The Senate Democratic leadership says it will bring the bill to a vote after the Senate returns from the Memorial Day recess June 3, and Republican leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky says that while he's undecided about the measure, he would not block the Senate from voting on it.
Full Senate action on the bill would show that our legislative system works as intended if given the chance. Then it would be up to the House to see that the system keeps working – and there’s little reason for encouragement on that side of the Capitol. House members tend to be more ideological. They represent mostly homogenous districts, most of them drawn by friendly state legislators to ensure no real competition from the other party. There’s little incentive for House Republicans to risk angering their anti-immigration reform base.
If a reform bill makes it to the House, it will be up to Speaker John Boehner to find a few Republicans willing to join Democrats – and risk a backlash on their GOP flank – to get a bipartisan bill to the president’s desk. That really would be a miracle.
Jay Z isn’t the only Carter who’s in the Halloween spirit. ‘Yonce and her mini-me Blue Ivy have joined in on the trick o’ treatin’ tradition as well.
Hov took the Barclays Center stage alongside Jeezy, donning the infamous Friday The 13th Jason ski mask on Thursday night (Oct. 30) during Powerhouse 2014. Frolicking backstage and soaking up her awesomeness was Queen Bey as Janet Jackson from the historic “Rhythm Nation” video.
Today, we get a glimpse of what character her superstar offspring is playing. It’s none other than the late, great Michael Jackson.
Has she got swag, or what?!
Hit the flip to see Beyoncé, Jay and even everyday folk emulating #TheCarters.
New launches are driving sales in urban areas but automobile makers are facing a rural slowdown. According to industry estimates, the rural market contributed 15 per cent of automobile sales this year, down from 18 per cent a year ago.
Delayed sowing of the winter crop after a deficit monsoon have accelerated agrarian stress in the last two years. Rural incomes have also declined as food prices have come off.
R C Bhargava, chairman of India’s largest car maker Maruti Suzuki, says a drought does not necessarily mean that rural sales will collapse. But rural sales do slow down with every sign of agrarian stress.
Maruti reported a 25 per cent growth in rural sales in April-September 2014, which has slowed down to 10 per cent this year. Maruti’s rural focus over the last seven years has helped countryside sales grow to 34 per cent from 3 per cent.
“The rural market accounts for almost one-third of the small car demand and also contributes to demand for compact sedans and utility vehicles. Almost half of the motorcycles are sold in the rural market. If this market does not perform, it will be all the more difficult for the industry to post a sustained recovery,” says Vishnu Mathur, director-general of the Society of Indian Automobile Manufacturers (Siam).
Hyundai, which has 21 per cent sales coming in from the rural market, says its sales are growing at 14 per cent in both urban and rural areas. “We have increased the number of rural outlets from 320 last year to 333 now. We are running customer-focused finance schemes and have been able to maintain the rural contribution,” says Rakesh Srivastava, senior vice-president and division head (sales and marketing), Hyundai.
The countryside’s contribution to passenger vehicle sales had climbed in recent years, helped by employment generation schemes, a surge in land prices and increases in support prices of crops. These triggers created a strong base, however, growing from that base is an uphill task for the automobile industry.
The stress is most visible in tractors sales, which have grown at a compounded average rate of 7 per cent over the last 20 years, and between 2010 and 2014, the rate accelerated to 16 per cent. In the first half of 2015-16, tractor sales have declined by 20 per cent.
“The Indian economy continues to recover, albeit at a slow pace as contracting exports and weak rural incomes weigh heavily on growth. A good rabi crop will play an important role in boosting agricultural incomes and improving rural demand,” Mahindra & Mahindra said in its outlook early this month.
Hero MotoCorp, which has a large rural footprint, saw sales in the second quarter decline by seven per cent year-on-year and 4.3 per cent quarter-on-quarter. Motorcycle sales overall declined by 2.57 per cent in April-October. Explains IIFL in a note, among two-wheeler companies, Hero has the highest exposure to the vulnerable segments, namely, economy and executive motorcycles, followed by TVS Motors’ mopeds and motorcycles. The exposure is the least for Eicher.
“Only half of the rural customers are farmers and the rest are those contributing to the rural economy. We are rolling out micro marketing and are targeting key customers like farmers, salaried employees and small businesses. We expect our rural revenue share to be about 30 per cent in the near term”, said a Tata Motors spokesperson, adding the rural contribution crossed 20 per cent (during April-October period) this year against 15 per cent in FY15 without sharing the current growth rate.
Most automobile makers expect a recovery in the second half of the financial year. The government has announced steep increases in support prices for pulses and oilseeds and a comparatively lower increase for wheat. But lower productivity takes away the benefit of higher support prices.
Moreover, the situation is not bright for all crops. In the largest sugarcane growing state Uttar Pradesh, where mills purchase cane worth over Rs 20,000 crore in a year, farmers are not likely to see an increase in price for the third consecutive year. Uttar Pradesh happens to be the second largest market for passenger vehicles.
The fact that the rural market is not doing well is visible in sales of utility vehicles, a sought-after segment in the countryside. In April-October, sales of utility vehicles grew by less than 1 per cent. By comparison, sales of cars grew by 11.51 per cent.
An industry executive explains that most of the new launches this year—Creta, Jazz, S Cross, Baleno and Aspire--are focused on the urban market, which is growing at 7-8 per cent vis-a-vis the 2-3 per cent growth in the rural market. The challenge of rural economy is also visible in motorcycle sales that declined by 2.57% in April-October period. Decline has been also prominent in tractor, considered a barometer of the rural economy.
Streaming service will unveil new interface at its Worldwide Developers Conference in June.
Nearly a year after Apple unveiled their new streaming service, Apple Music is reportedly undergoing a revamp overseen by Trent Reznor.
Apple Music is celebrating its one-year anniversary with an overhaul of its streaming service. Nine Inch Nails singer Trent Reznor, who has been creatively involved with the service before Apple acquired Beats’ holdings in May 2014, is involved in the process, Bloomberg reports.
Apple Music had a tumultuous year. In its first six months, the service exceeded expectations acquiring 10 million paying users. It overcame hurdles related to artists compensation and secured albums by Drake, Future and Taylor Swift. Yet the number of Apple music subscribers pales in comparison to the number of Apple product consumers. The tech company is working to close that gap in 2016. Reznor, along with VP, Apple iTunes Content Robert Kondrk have been tasked with making Music competitive with its rival, Spotify. As an artist, Reznor would add more legitimacy to the campaign.
Apple Insider reports that Apple will also launch a major ad campaign in support of the service after iTunes’ profits dipped minimally in the first year of Apple Music. Original video programming with a Dr. Dre drama series titled Vital Signs is also in the works for the service as well as more radio stations similar to its flagship station Beats 1.
Apple Music will announce changes at the company’s annual Worldwide Developers Conference on June 13th.
This Week's TV: Electricity-Hungry Bats Invade Rio!
What’s on TV this week? Another sporadically programmed episode of Gravity Falls! Atlantis, True Detective and Stitchers all draw to a close. Plus whatever the hell’s happening on Zoo! All on This Week’s TV.
“Weird Al Yankovic guest stars.” You heard the man.
The contestants must create their own interpretations of the mythological siren.
In case anyone’s still watching this show, here’s the summer finale! Featuring a RoboCop quote.
This episode is called This Is What it Sounds Like – so it’s possible they were considering calling it Batdance at one point.
It looks like lots of windows and glass doors break in this episode, so I just want to confirm that this little trick works, and has completely changed my life!