We The Living
''We the Living'' is the debut novel of the Russian American novelist Ayn Rand. It is a story of life in Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic, post-revolutionary Russia and was Rand's first statement against communism. Rand observes in the foreword that ''We the Living'' was the closest she would ever come to writing an autobiography. Rand finished writing the novel in 1934, but it was rejected by several publishers before being released by Macmillan Publishing in 1936.Ralston, Richard E. "Publishing ''We the Living''". In It has since sold more than three million copies.Ralston, Richard E. "Publishing ''We the Living''". In Plot The story takes place from 1922 to 1925, in post-Russian Revolution of 1917, revolutionary Russia. Kira Argounova, the protagonist of the story, is the younger daughter of a bourgeois family. An independent spirit with a will to match, she rejects any attempt by her family or the nascent Soviet state to cast her into a mold. At the beginning of ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Ayn Rand
Alice O'Connor (born Alisa Zinovyevna Rosenbaum; , 1905March 6, 1982), better known by her pen name Ayn Rand (), was a Russian-born American writer and philosopher. She is known for her fiction and for developing a philosophical system which she named ''Objectivism''. Born and educated in Russia, she moved to the United States in 1926. After two early novels that were initially unsuccessful and two Broadway theatre, Broadway plays, Rand achieved fame with her 1943 novel ''The Fountainhead''. In 1957, she published her best-selling work, the novel ''Atlas Shrugged''. Afterward, until her death in 1982, she turned to non-fiction to promote her philosophy, publishing her own Objectivist periodicals, periodicals and releasing several collections of essays. Rand advocated reason and rejected faith and religion. She supported Rational egoism, rational and ethical egoism as opposed to Altruism (ethics), altruism and hedonism. In politics, she condemned the initiation of force as immor ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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State Political Directorate
The State Political Directorate (), abbreviated as GPU (), was the secret police of the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic from February 1922 to November 1923. It was the immediate successor of the Cheka, and was replaced by the Joint State Political Directorate (OGPU). Name The official designation in line to the native reference is: *Русский: = Государственное политическое управление (ГПУ) при Народном комиссариaте внутренних дел (НКВД) РСФСР *Romanization of Russian, tr =Gosudarstvennoe politicheskoe upravlenie (GPU) pri narodnom komissariate vnutrennikh del (NKVD) RSFSR – (GPU pri NKVD RSFSR) *English: = State Political Directorate (also State Political Administration) under the People's Commissariat of interior affairs of the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic (RSFSR) Establishment Formed from the Cheka, the original Russian state security organization, on Febr ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Granville Hicks
Granville Hicks (September 9, 1901 – June 18, 1982) was an American Marxist and later anti-Marxist novelist, literary critic, educator, and editor. Early life and education Granville Hicks was born September 9, 1901, in Exeter, New Hampshire, to Frank Stevens and Carrie Weston (Horne) Hicks. He earned his A.B. in 1923, ''summa cum laude'', from Harvard College, where he was a classmate of Henry Friendly, and also a M.A. from Harvard University. In 1925 he married Dorothy Dyer, with whom he had a daughter, Stephanie. From 1925 to 1928, Hicks taught at Smith College in Northampton, Massachusetts, as an instructor in biblical literature. He was an assistant professor of English at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (1929–1935) and a counselor in American civilization at Harvard (1938–1939). Political activism Hicks was a highly-influential Marxist literary critic in the 1930s who was well known for his involvement in a number of celebrated causes, including his well-publicize ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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George Platt Brett
George Platt Brett Jr. (December 9, 1893 – February 11, 1984) served at Chairman of the American division of Macmillan Publishing and secured publishing rights to '' Gone With the Wind''. Biography Career George Brett started with Macmillan in 1913 as a traveling salesman and took over as President of Macmillan in 1931. Brett took over as chairman in 1936 after the death of his father, George Platt Brett Sr. Brett is best known for having "scored one of publishing's all-time triumphs by gaining the rights to ' Gone With the Wind.' The success of ''Gone with the Wind'' from 1935 to 1936 lead to bonuses of 18% to all employees at Macmillan. Additional literary success under Brett were Rachael Filed's ''All This'' and ''Heaven Too'' and Katleen Winsor's ''Forever Amber''. In addition, Brett published notable authors C. S. Lewis and Marianne Moore. In 1939, Brett promoted a special motion picture edition of ''Gone with the Wind'' at the same time the film was being releas ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Ayn Rand (1943 Talbot Portrait)
Alice O'Connor (born Alisa Zinovyevna Rosenbaum; , 1905March 6, 1982), better known by her pen name Ayn Rand (), was a Russian-born American writer and philosopher. She is known for her fiction and for developing a philosophical system which she named ''Objectivism''. Born and educated in Russia, she moved to the United States in 1926. After two early novels that were initially unsuccessful and two Broadway plays, Rand achieved fame with her 1943 novel ''The Fountainhead''. In 1957, she published her best-selling work, the novel ''Atlas Shrugged''. Afterward, until her death in 1982, she turned to non-fiction to promote her philosophy, publishing her own periodicals and releasing several collections of essays. Rand advocated reason and rejected faith and religion. She supported rational and ethical egoism as opposed to altruism and hedonism. In politics, she condemned the initiation of force as immoral and supported ''laissez-faire'' capitalism, which she defined as the syst ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Soviet Union
The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR), commonly known as the Soviet Union, was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 until Dissolution of the Soviet Union, it dissolved in 1991. During its existence, it was the list of countries and dependencies by area, largest country by area, extending across Time in Russia, eleven time zones and sharing Geography of the Soviet Union#Borders and neighbors, borders with twelve countries, and the List of countries and dependencies by population, third-most populous country. An overall successor to the Russian Empire, it was nominally organized as a federal union of Republics of the Soviet Union, national republics, the largest and most populous of which was the Russian SFSR. In practice, Government of the Soviet Union, its government and Economy of the Soviet Union, economy were Soviet-type economic planning, highly centralized. As a one-party state go ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Hollywood, Los Angeles
Hollywood, sometimes informally called Tinseltown, is a List of districts and neighborhoods in Los Angeles, neighborhood and district in the Central Los Angeles, central region of Los Angeles County, California, within the city of Los Angeles. Its name has become synonymous with the Cinema of the United States, U.S. film industry and the people associated with it. Many notable film studios such as Sony Pictures, Walt Disney Studios (division), Walt Disney Studios, Paramount Pictures, Warner Bros., and Universal Pictures are located in or near Hollywood. Hollywood was incorporated as a municipality in 1903. The North Hollywood, Los Angeles, northern and East Hollywood, Los Angeles, eastern parts of the neighborhood were Merger (politics), consolidated with the City of Los Angeles in 1910. Soon thereafter, the prominent film industry migrated to the area. History Initial development H. J. Whitley, a real estate developer, arranged to buy the E.C. Hurd ranch. Whitley shared ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Anti-communist
Anti-communism is political and ideological opposition to communist beliefs, groups, and individuals. Organized anti-communism developed after the 1917 October Revolution in Russia, and it reached global dimensions during the Cold War, when the United States and the Soviet Union engaged in an intense rivalry. Anti-communism has been an element of many movements and different political positions across the political spectrum, including anarchism, centrism, conservatism, fascism, liberalism, nationalism, social democracy, socialism, leftism, and libertarianism, as well as broad movements #Evasion of censorship, resisting communist governance. Anti-communism has also been expressed by #Religions, several religious groups, and in art and #Literature, literature. The first organization which was specifically dedicated to opposing communism was the Russian White movement, which fought in the Russian Civil War starting in 1918 against the recently established Government of Vladimir Le ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Expropriated
Eminent domain, also known as land acquisition, compulsory purchase, resumption, resumption/compulsory acquisition, or expropriation, is the compulsory acquisition of private property for public use. It does not include the power to take and transfer ownership of private property from one property owner to another private property owner without a valid public purpose. This power can be legislatively delegated by the state to municipalities, government subdivisions, or even to private persons or corporations, when they are authorized to exercise the functions of public character. The most common uses of property taken by eminent domain have been for roads, government buildings and public utilities. Many railroads were given the right of eminent domain to obtain land or easements in order to build and connect rail networks. In the mid-20th century, a new application of eminent domain was pioneered, in which the government could take the property and transfer it to a private third ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Russian Empire
The Russian Empire was an empire that spanned most of northern Eurasia from its establishment in November 1721 until the proclamation of the Russian Republic in September 1917. At its height in the late 19th century, it covered about , roughly one-sixth of the world's landmass, making it the list of largest empires, third-largest empire in history, behind only the British Empire, British and Mongol Empire, Mongol empires. It also Russian colonization of North America, colonized Alaska between 1799 and 1867. The empire's 1897 census, the only one it conducted, found a population of 125.6 million with considerable ethnic, linguistic, religious, and socioeconomic diversity. From the 10th to 17th centuries, the Russians had been ruled by a noble class known as the boyars, above whom was the tsar, an absolute monarch. The groundwork of the Russian Empire was laid by Ivan III (), who greatly expanded his domain, established a centralized Russian national state, and secured inde ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Saint Petersburg
Saint Petersburg, formerly known as Petrograd and later Leningrad, is the List of cities and towns in Russia by population, second-largest city in Russia after Moscow. It is situated on the Neva, River Neva, at the head of the Gulf of Finland on the Baltic Sea. The city had a population of 5,601,911 residents as of 2021, with more than 6.4 million people living in the Saint Petersburg metropolitan area, metropolitan area. Saint Petersburg is the List of European cities by population within city limits, fourth-most populous city in Europe, the List of cities and towns around the Baltic Sea, most populous city on the Baltic Sea, and the world's List of northernmost items#Cities and settlements, northernmost city of more than 1 million residents. As the former capital of the Russian Empire, and a Ports of the Baltic Sea, historically strategic port, it is governed as a Federal cities of Russia, federal city. The city was founded by Tsar Peter the Great on 27 May 1703 on the s ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Gigolo
A gigolo ( ) is a male escort, call boy or social companion who is supported by a person in a continuing relationship. The term ''gigolo'' usually implies a man who adopts a lifestyle consisting of a number of such relationships serially rather than having other means of support. The gigolo is expected to provide companionship, to serve as a consistent escort with good manners and social skills, and often to serve as a dancing partner as required by the woman in exchange for the support. Many gifts, such as expensive clothing and an automobile to drive, may be lavished upon him. The relationship may include sexual services as well, and he also can be referred to as a "kept man." The word ''gigolo'' may be traced to a first usage in English as a neologism during the 1920s as a back-formation from ''gigolette'', a French word for a woman hired as a dancing partner. Both ''gigolo'' and ''gigolette'' were first recorded in French in the middle part of the 19th century, referr ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |