|
Wilhelm Zaisser
Wilhelm Zaisser (20 June 1893 – 3 March 1958) was a German communist politician and statesman who served as the founder and first Minister for State Security of the German Democratic Republic (1950–1953). Early life Born in Gelsenkirchen, Westphalia, Zaisser studied to become a teacher from 1910 to 1913 in Essen. When World War I began a year later, Zaisser joined the Imperial German Army. Upon leaving the service in 1918, Zaisser joined the Independent Social Democratic Party of Germany (USPD) and in 1919 returned to Essen, where he became a school teacher. During this period, Zaisser became an active communist. During the Kapp Putsch in 1920, he was a military leader of the fledgling Red Ruhr Army, which led to his arrest and dismissal as a teacher in 1921. After his release, Zaisser worked for the Communist Party of Germany (KPD) as a propagandist. From 1921 to 1922, Zaisser edited the ''Ruhr Echo'' and the ''Bergischen Voice of the People''. In 1923, Zaisser was re ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Stasi
The Ministry for State Security (, ; abbreviated MfS), commonly known as the (, an abbreviation of ), was the Intelligence agency, state security service and secret police of East Germany from 1950 to 1990. It was one of the most repressive police organisations in the world, infiltrating almost every aspect of life in East Germany, using torture, intimidation and a vast network of informants to crush dissent. The function of the Stasi in East Germany (the GDR) resembled that of the KGB in the Soviet Union, in that it served to maintain state authority and the position of the ruling party, in this case the Socialist Unity Party of Germany (SED). This was accomplished primarily through the use of a network of civilian informants (called Unofficial collaborator, unofficial collaborators) who contributed to the arrest of approximately 250,000 people in East Germany. It also had a large elite paramilitary force, the Felix Dzerzhinsky Guards Regiment, that served as its armed wing. ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Republic Of China (1912–1949)
The Republic of China (ROC) began on 1 January 1912 as a sovereign state in mainland China following the 1911 Revolution, which overthrew the Manchu people, Manchu-led Qing dynasty and ended China's imperial China, imperial history. From 1927, the Kuomintang (KMT) Northern expedition, reunified the country and initially ruled it as a one-party state with Nanjing as the national capital. In 1949, Nationalist government, the KMT-led government was defeated in the Chinese Civil War and lost control of the mainland to the Chinese Communist Party (CCP). The CCP Proclamation of the People's Republic of China, established the People's Republic of China (PRC) while the ROC was forced to Retreat of the government of the Republic of China to Taiwan, retreat to Taiwan; the ROC retains control over the Taiwan Area, and political status of Taiwan, its political status remains disputed. The ROC is recorded as a founding member of both the League of Nations and the United Nations, and previous ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Hermann Weber
Hermann Weber (23 August 1928 – 29 December 2014) was a German historian and political scientist. He has been described as "the man who knew everything about the German Democratic Republic". Life Early years Hermann Weber was born into a working-class family in the closing years of what would later become known as the Weimar Republic period. His father was a metal worker. When Weber was 4 years old, membership in the Communist Party of Germany (KPD) was banned by the Nazi Party. This impacted his family greatly – Weber's father was a Communist who found himself harassed and at one stage thrown into prison for a year and a half by the Gestapo. Published output (not a complete list) As author * with Andreas Herbst: ''Deutsche Kommunisten. Biographisches Handbuch 1918–1945.'' 2nd edition: revised and much extended, Berlin 2008, . : ''Deutsche Kommunisten – Supplement to the above 1918-1945.'' Dietz Verlag, Berlin 2013, . * with Gerda Weber: ''Leben nach dem „P ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Bernd-Rainer Barth
Bernd-Rainer Barth (born East Berlin 1957) is a German historian of the modern period. Life The son of an East German diplomat, Barth spent a large part of his early life in Hungary, studying between 1977 and 1983 at the Eötvös Loránd University in Budapest. His subject here was Hungarian studies (especially philology and history). He then worked in various academic institutions in East Germany until 1988 when he found himself banned from professional work. After the reunification of Germany, during the 1990s, he worked as an academic research assistant at the Free University of Berlin. Between May 2002 and September 2003 he was an academic research assistant focusing on the "Theory and history of power" (''"Theorie und Geschichte der Gewalt"'') at the Hamburg Institute for Social Research. Since then he has worked as a freelance historian, translator and academic journalist. Output Bernd-Rainer Barth has become known, in particular, as a producer and co-author for the ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
East German
East Germany, officially known as the German Democratic Republic (GDR), was a country in Central Europe from its formation on 7 October 1949 until its reunification with West Germany (FRG) on 3 October 1990. Until 1989, it was generally viewed as a communist state and described itself as a socialist "workers' and peasants' state". The economy of the country was centrally planned and state-owned. Although the GDR had to pay substantial war reparations to the Soviets, its economy became the most successful in the Eastern Bloc. Before its establishment, the country's territory was administered and occupied by Soviet forces following the Berlin Declaration abolishing German sovereignty in World War II. The Potsdam Agreement established the Soviet-occupied zone, bounded on the east by the Oder–Neiße line. The GDR was dominated by the Socialist Unity Party of Germany (SED), a communist party, before being democratized and liberalized in 1989 as a result of the pressu ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Communist
Communism () is a sociopolitical, philosophical, and economic ideology within the socialist movement, whose goal is the creation of a communist society, a socioeconomic order centered on common ownership of the means of production, distribution, and exchange that allocates products in society based on need.: "One widespread distinction was that socialism socialised production only while communism socialised production and consumption." A communist society entails the absence of private property and social classes, and ultimately money and the state. Communists often seek a voluntary state of self-governance but disagree on the means to this end. This reflects a distinction between a libertarian socialist approach of communization, revolutionary spontaneity, and workers' self-management, and an authoritarian socialist, vanguardist, or party-driven approach to establish a socialist state, which is expected to wither away. Communist parties have been described as radi ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Spanish Civil War
The Spanish Civil War () was a military conflict fought from 1936 to 1939 between the Republican faction (Spanish Civil War), Republicans and the Nationalist faction (Spanish Civil War), Nationalists. Republicans were loyal to the Left-wing politics, left-leaning Popular Front (Spain), Popular Front government of the Second Spanish Republic. The opposing Nationalists were an alliance of Falangism, Falangists, monarchists, conservatives, and Traditionalism (Spain), traditionalists led by a National Defense Junta, military junta among whom General Francisco Franco quickly achieved a preponderant role. Due to the international Interwar period#Great Depression, political climate at the time, the war was variously viewed as class struggle, a War of religion, religious struggle, or a struggle between dictatorship and Republicanism, republican democracy, between revolution and counterrevolution, or between fascism and communism. The Nationalists won the war, which ended in early 1939, ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Ruhr Uprising
The Ruhr uprising () or March uprising () was an uprising that occurred in the Ruhr region of Germany from 13 March to 6 April 1920. It was a Left-wing politics, left-wing workers' revolt triggered by the call for a Kapp Putsch#General Strike against the Coup, general strike in response to the Kapp Putsch, then became an armed rebellion when far-left workers used the strike as an opportunity to attempt the establishment of a Soviet republic, council republic. Spontaneously formed workers' councils sprang up across the Ruhr during the strike and took control of the region with the support of 50,000–80,000 armed workers who formed the Red Ruhr Army. Early attempts at suppression by the ''Freikorps'' were defeated which led the German government in Berlin to negotiate a peaceful settlement without success. The ''Reichswehr'' and other ''Freikorps'' troops under the command of Oskar von Watter were sent into the Ruhr and acted with considerable brutality, including Summary execut ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
First World War
World War I or the First World War (28 July 1914 – 11 November 1918), also known as the Great War, was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War I, Allies (or Entente) and the Central Powers. Fighting took place mainly in European theatre of World War I, Europe and the Middle Eastern theatre of World War I, Middle East, as well as in parts of African theatre of World War I, Africa and the Asian and Pacific theatre of World War I, Asia-Pacific, and in Europe was characterised by trench warfare; the widespread use of Artillery of World War I, artillery, machine guns, and Chemical weapons in World War I, chemical weapons (gas); and the introductions of Tanks in World War I, tanks and Aviation in World War I, aircraft. World War I was one of the List of wars by death toll, deadliest conflicts in history, resulting in an estimated World War I casualties, 10 million military dead and more than 20 million wounded, plus some 10 million civilian de ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Spanish Republican Army
The Spanish Republican Army () was the main branch of the Spanish Republican Armed Forces, Armed Forces of the Second Spanish Republic between 1931 and 1939. It became known as People's Army of the Republic (''Ejército Popular de la República'') after it was reorganized, following the disbandment of the voluntary militias that were formed in July 1936 at the beginning of the Spanish Civil War. History The Spanish Republican Army went through two clear phases during its existence: * The pre-Civil War phase, before the Spanish coup of July 1936, coup of July 1936 that would fracture the Spanish military institution *The Civil War reorganization of the forces that remained loyal to the established republican government. Background Following the loss of Spain's last colonies, Cuba and Philippines, in 1898, the country's armed forces grew disgruntled and the public's view toward them worsened. Military leaders resented the attitude of the Spanish politicians and the public opin ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
National Revolutionary Army
The National Revolutionary Army (NRA; zh, labels=no, t=國民革命軍) served as the military arm of the Kuomintang, Chinese Nationalist Party (Kuomintang, or KMT) from 1924 until 1947. From 1928, it functioned as the regular army, de facto national armed forces of the Nationalist government, Republic of China during the period of Nationalist rule. Following the promulgation of the Constitution of the Republic of China, 1947 Constitution — which established civilian control of the military, civilian control over the military on a de jure basis — it was formally reorganised as the Republic of China Armed Forces. Initially formed from Constitutional Protection Junta, pro-nationalist faction troops after 1917, with assistance from the Soviet Union, the NRA was created as an instrument for the Nationalist government to unify China during the Warlord Era. It went on to fight major military conflicts, including the Northern Expedition against the Beiyang warlords, the encirclem ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
GRU (Soviet Union)
Main Intelligence Directorate ( rus, Главное разведывательное управление, Glavnoye razvedyvatel'noye upravleniye, ˈglavnəjə rɐzˈvʲɛdɨvətʲɪlʲnəjə ʊprɐˈvlʲenʲɪjə), abbreviated GRU ( rus, ГРУ, p=ɡɨ̞‿rɨ̞‿ˈu, ), was the foreign military intelligence agency of the General Staff of the Soviet Armed Forces until 1991. For a few months it was also the foreign military intelligence agency of the newly established Russian Federation until 7 May 1992 when it was dissolved and the GRU (Russian Federation), Russian GRU took over its activities. History The GRU's first predecessor in Russia formed on October 21, 1918 by secret order under the sponsorship of Leon Trotsky (then the civilian leader of the Red Army), signed by Jukums Vācietis, the first commander-in-chief of the Red Army (RKKA), and by Ephraim Sklyansky, deputy to Trotsky; it was originally known as the Registration Directorate (''Registrupravlenie'', or RU). ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
